July 21, 2009 - Modern Distribution Management

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July 21, 2009

Canadian Wholesale Revenues Dips In May

Canadian wholesale sales in current dollars fell 0.3% to $40.1billion in May, its lowest level since December 2005. In volume terms, wholesale sales were unchanged in May. Weaker sales in the machinery and equipment, food, and metal products trade groups were the major factors contributing to the decrease during the month. With May's decline, wholesale sales have fallen for eight consecutive months.

In current dollars, four of the seven sectors, accounting for just over half of total wholesale sales, declined in May.

Sales in the machinery and electronic equipment sector fell0.2% in May. Almost half of this sector is accounted for by the machinery and equipment trade group, which declined 2.3%. Sales in this trade group have declined almost20% since their September2008peak.
The ...

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A Case Study in Competing in a Growing Safety Products Market

For Safety Products Inc. (SPI), Lakeland, FL, the key to success is evolving with your customers' needs while focusing on your specialty. The safety products distributor was recently featured at TheLedger.com.

As detailed in the article, CEO and founder Ed Williams has managed to expand the company's offerings without straying from its central specialty - no small feat when you look at how the safety products marketplace has changed over the last two decades. More broadline distributorsand distributors specialized in other product areas have added safety products to their offerings, bringing new competitors into the space. According to the article, "At one time SPI competed against a number of ...

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Pentair 2Q Sales Decline 23%

Pentair, Inc., Minneapolis, MN, reported second quarter sales of $694 million, a decrease of 23% compared with second quarter 2008. Profit declined 77% to $31.9 million.

Year-to-date, sales were $1.33 billion, a decline of 23.2% over the prior year. Profit fell 73.1% to $49.1 million.

"Overall we continue to make tremendous progress against our cost actions as well as to drive strong free cash flow generation. While a few of our markets are showing signs of improvement, most continue to remain soft, as expected," CEO Randall J. Hogan says.

The Water Group delivered $487 million in sales, an 18% decline year-over-year. Sales were down 17% excluding the formation of the Pentair Residential Filtration business with General Electric's (GE) Water and Process Technologies unit, which ...

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Chicago Fed National Activity Index Improves In June

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index was -1.80 in June, up from -2.30 in May. All four broad categories of indicators continued to make negative contributions to the index, with employment and housing-related indicators accounting for much of the weakness in June.

The three-month moving average, CFNAI-MA3, was -2.12 in June, up from -2.65 in the previous month. June's CFNAI-MA3 suggests that growth in national economic activity was well below its historical trend. With regard to inflation, the amount of economic slack reflected in the CFNAI-MA3 indicates low inflationary pressure from economic activity over the coming year.

The increase in the index was primarily due to the production and income category of indicators. This category made a smaller negative contribution to the ...

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Cautious Optimism Expressed in Survey of Manufacturing Executives

Cautious optimism is how most manufacturing executives are approaching the economy over the next six months, according to the results of a recent survey by accounting and consulting firm Baker Tilly. While 57% of respondents said they had a somewhat optimistic" or "very optimistic" outlook for the U.S. economy in the next six months, 47% said the same about the manufacturing sector.

In addition, executives indicated that the massive layoffs that have been occurring at manufacturers of all sizes may be reaching an end. While 20% of respondents indicated they intend to reduce staffing levels over the next six months, 70% said they were planning to keep their staffing levels where they are. On top of that, 9% said they were planning to increase staff.

And while several companies said ...

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How Much Is Too Much When It Comes to Increased Workloads?

In today's economy, workers are often being asked to do more, whether it is helping with standard maintenance around the building or even reviewing processes to improve productivity (Read some distributors' approach to this in Keeping Layoffs to a Minimum.). But, how much is too much?

Jon Gordon, author of the new book Training Camp: What the Best Do Better Than Everyone Else, says it's hard to do too much. While acknowledging that everyone needs the "occasional break," he advises employees, "Make sure that when others are sleeping, you are working."

Not everyone shares his level of enthusiasm for taking on ever growing workloads. Anna Wells, editor of IMPOMag, addressed this issue in a ...

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