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For our recently released 2011 MDM Market Leaders and Distribution Landscape Report, we spoke with dozens of distributors across sectors and surveyed our readers. Thank you for your input.
From these discussions, four key trends emerged that are driving the distribution industry in the second half of 2011 and will likely continue to change the landscape through 2012. Of course, trends vary based on company, and geographic or product market. But these trends seem to go across sectors and were mentioned by a majority of our readers.
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1. Customers want more. More distributors of all sizes are finding themselves doing more for customers. Customers who have pared back staff and resources in response to the recession want distributors to perform more services for them. That said, not all distributors are doing so. It all depends on the services customers want. As one distributor told us: "We will consider almost anything, but we'll only agree to do the things that make sense."
2. Inventory management continues to be a priority. Distributors are rebuilding inventories, but carefully. Despite the increase in demand, companies want to keep their inventory investment low. Forecasting and the replenishment process is top of mind for many. VMI continues to be popular.
3. A reluctance to hire again. Rather than hire, many distributors are cross-training and asking employees to do more. For some, this has worked – they've learned they can operate with a lower level of resources.
4. A focus on diversification. Distributors of all sizes are diversifying their exposure to end-markets and are expanding their product breadth. As one distributor said: "We don't want to follow the price of oil and the price of copper and the price of coal and natural gas."
Read more about these trends in the report, which is available free to subscribers. Click here to log-in and download the pdf. Or subscribe today for full access. The report is more comprehensive than last year, including articles on the above trends, distribution sector trend reports, the lists of top distributors in 12 sectors, and company listings for distributors on most of those lists.
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| Digital Strategy Manager | Border States Electric | Fargo North Dakota |
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