June 25, 2007

Canadian Wholesale Revenues Fall 3.1% in April

Leave a Comment / Economic Trends, Research & Analytics, Free, News, Subscriber Only / MDM Staff

Wholesalers posted sharply lower sales in April, as declines in a number of major sectors erased all of the strong gains made over the previous two months.
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Overall sales fell by 3.1% in April to an estimated $42.8&nbsp ; billion. April's drop was the largest since August&nbsp ; 2003&nbsp ; and followed increases of 2.3% and 0.9% in March and February respectively.
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Five of the seven wholesale sectors registered declines in April. Leading the way was the automotive products sector (-8.3%), followed by other products" (-5.9%) and machinery and electronic equipment (-2.3%). Sales of building materials and farm products also posted decreases in April.
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The only positive note came in the food, beverage and tobacco products sector (+0.8%), while sales ...

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Nucor to Buy Magnatrax for $280M

Leave a Comment / Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions, Free, Top Distributor Sectors, News, Subscriber Only / MDM Staff

Nucor Corp., Charlotte, NC, has agreed to buy Magnatrax Corporation, a provider of metal building systems in the North American non-residential market, for $280 million.
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Magnatrax has seven fabricating plants, as well as service centers and transport facilities, throughout the U.S. It operates through its American Buildings Company, Kirby Building Systems, Gulf States Manufacturers and CBC Steel Buildings subsidiaries and divisions.
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The supplier sells, engineers and fabricates custom metal roofing systems for new and retrofit construction and sells third-party metal building components.
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The acquisition of Magnatrax is an important growth opportunity for one of our core downstream businesses," said Dan DiMicco, Nucor's president and CEO. ...

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Home Depot Sells Off Supply Unit

Leave a Comment / Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions, Companies, Top Distributor Sectors, Building Materials/Construction, Facilities Maintenance (MRO), Subscriber Only / Lindsay Young

After months of speculation, The Home Depot has agreed to sell its wholesale division, HD Supply, and bring its focus back to the performance of its retail core. Three private equity firms will buy the $12 billion unit.

The Home Depot, Atlanta, GA, has agreed to sell HD Supply to a team of private equity firms – Bain Capital LLC, Carlyle Group and Clayton Dubilier & Rice Inc. – for $10.3 billion, or roughly 10X-12X EBITDA. The firms are splitting the investment equally.

The sale has been expected for weeks now, with a number of private equity firms rumored to have bid for the unit and several to have bowed out due to the down housing market – one of HD Supply's core customer bases. HD Supply reported a decrease in organic sales in the recent ...

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Know Your Customers

Leave a Comment / Sales & Marketing, Subscriber Only / MDM Staff

To successfully integrate its company and grab market share, Interline Brands has had to pay close attention to and respond to the needs of acquired and current customers, Interline Brands President William Sanford said recently at the JPMorgan Basics & Industrials Conference.

In fact, learning about customers starts before an acquisition is even made, he said. The relationships we acquire are important. We have to understand how strong those relationships are before we make an investment," Sanford said.

The $1 billion distributor of facilities maintenance products was formed through a series of mergers of more than 20 companies in the plumbing supply and facilities maintenance industries.

Last year it bought American Sanitary Inc., a rollup and national ...

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The Gray Market and Distribution

Leave a Comment / Operations, Legal Issues in Wholesale Distribution, Subscriber Only / Frederic Mendelsohn

The gray market is ill-defined and can range from legitimate goods intended for sale elsewhere sold in an unauthorized area, to outsourced manufacturers who generate more product than that ordered by an OEM, to goods that are remanufactured after use, to pure piracy. Here's a look at a recent case between a manufacturer and distributor.

Recently, Hewlett-Packard resolved a gray market" lawsuit that it filed in a federal district court in Tennessee against one of its by-then terminated distributors and one of the distributor's customers.

In essence, HP claimed that its distributor violated the terms of its authorized reseller agreement by purchasing products at deep discounts and then selling the products to a customer not authorized by HP.

The ...

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Schneider Electric Continues Campaign Against Counterfeiting

Leave a Comment / Free, Operations, Top Distributor Sectors, Electrical, Legal Issues in Wholesale Distribution, Subscriber Only / MDM Staff

North American Breaker Co. (NABCO) has been enjoined in federal court from buying or selling virtually all Square D QO circuit breakers, and two other companies -CES Liquidating Inc. and TES Liquidating LLC -have been enjoined from selling any of Schneider Electric's Square D products.

Square D filed suit against NABCO on July 26, 2006, contending that the company placed 50,594 counterfeit Square D circuit breakers into the field. In the suit, Square D alleged that NABCO was guilty of trademark infringement.

Counterfeit Square D products pose serious health and safety hazards to innocent customers," said Bill Snyder, vice president-channel distribution for the Schneider Electric North American Operation Division. "Through this lawsuit and others like it, Square D has ...

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Commentary: Dust Won’t Settle on HD Supply

Leave a Comment / Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions, Free, Companies, Perspective, Subscriber Only / Tom Gale

Be careful not to get a sugar high from the HD Supply spin-off announced this past week. After a deal of this magnitude, it's easy to get excited about what it means once the dust settles. But the dust won't settle on HD Supply. If anything, the non-contributing or distracting units will be shed and a leaner, more focused business will emerge. It was not purchased to be gutted or dismantled. The remaining entity, while smaller in size, will likely continue as the lead consolidator in a narrower band of distribution verticals.

The deal will have a large impact in a few sectors, and virtually no impact in others beyond the perceived valuation halo effect. Some had anticipated the price for HD Supply might cool slightly due to the weakness of residential markets in North America. ...

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MDM News Digest 3712

Leave a Comment / Free, Subscriber Only / MDM Staff

Five U.S.&nbsp ; producers of steel nails have filed antidumping duty petitions alleging that dumped imports of nails from and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are causing material injury to the domestic industry. The petitioners allege antidumping margins of 59 percent to 136 percent for and 98 percent to 114 percent for the UAE. The petitioners are Mid Continent Nail Corporation, Poplar Bluff, Davis Wire Corporation, Irwindale, Gerdau Ameristeel Corporation (Atlas Steel & Wire Division),

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Grainger by the Numbers: 2007 Factbook

Leave a Comment / Companies, Top Distributor Sectors, Facilities Maintenance (MRO), Subscriber Only / MDM Staff

W.W. Grainger, Chicago, IL, $5.9 billion broad-line distributor of facilities maintenance products, sells primarily to industrial and commercial maintenance departments, contractors and government customers. The company has been driving two initiatives: market expansion, which is nearly finished in the U.S., and product expansion. Grainger recently released its 2007 Factbook, which is full of statistics on its operations in the U.S., Mexico, China and Canada. The following graphics, presented in the document below, were pulled from that Factbook, which is available on Grainger's Web site,

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MDM June 25, 2007

Leave a Comment / Subscriber Only / MDM Staff

This is the pdf of this issue of Modern Distribution Management. Apply the full $24.95 pay-per-view cost toward an annual subscription (within 30 days of purchase), which includes two issues a month plus access to more than six years of online archives and market data. Call 1-888-742-5060 or email info@mdm.com to ...

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