News
Breaking news in Wholesale Distribution
The three-month moving average, CFNAI-MA3, increased to -2.65 in April from -3.29 in the previous month, improving for the third consecutive month. April's CFNAI-MA3 suggests that growth in national economic activity was below its historical trend. With regard to inflation, it 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, which made a much smaller negative contribution of -0.35 to the index in April compared with -1.09 in March. Total ...
About this report: This is the MDM Public Distributor Report, provided on a quarterly basis to subscribers of Modern Distribution Management. The report is available online only.
Click here to download this report in pdf.
A common theme in public distributors' earnings conference calls for the second quarter was a lack of visibility into potential conditions for the rest of the year. Overall the sales environment continues to be challenging for our industry," says Michael Grebe, Interline Brands CEO. "Visibility remains extremely low, and like our distribution peers, we are not at a point where we see a meaningful recovery in the very near term."
Here is a ...
Seven of the ten indicators used for the LEI in the U.S. increased in April, led by increases in stock prices and interest rate spread. The LEI rose 1% to 99.0 in April, the first increase in seven months. For the six months ending in April, the index has fallen 0.6%.
The Conference Board LEI for the U.S. has been generally falling since the middle of 2007, but the pace of its decline has slowed substantially in recent months. With this month's sharp and widespread increase, the ...
Canadian wholesalers sell to both the domestic and international markets, and are active importers and exporters. The larger decline in the constant dollar sales compared with the current dollar sales in March reflects higher prices paid by wholesalers for imported goods. This was due in part to the depreciation of the Canadian dollar versus the US dollar in March.
In March, four out of seven sectors, accounting for two-thirds of total wholesale sales, posted ...
Following a negligible increase in sales in February 2009,
manufacturers' sales dropped by 4.2% in March 2009. Compared to the same period last year, sales in March 2009 were down 24.9%. Orders in March 2009 continue to drop with a 7.8% decrease over February 2009 sales.
Canadian manufacturers' sales were down 7.9% compared to February 2009. Sales were down 29.0% when compared to the ...
Profit declined 83.2% to $18 million. Excluding charges related to restructuring, integration and other special items, profit fell 58.2% to $44.8 million.
Electronics Marketing sales fell 20.1% year over year to $2.1 billion, with declines occurring in all geographic regions.
Technology Solutions sales of $1.60 billion were down 10.8% from the prior year period. While still down, sales in this segment appear to have stabilized, CEO Roy Vallee said. ...
The acquisition of ORCO's assets provides HD Supply White Cap with an increased ability to provide world-class service to our existing and prospective customers, said Tom Lazzaro, president of HD Supply White Cap.
ORCO Construction Supply will be fully integrated into the HD Supply White Cap business and will begin operating under the HD Supply White Cap brand following the closing of the transaction. ...
Organic sales decreased 7% in the quarter, led by declines in the European OEM supply business which declined 32%. Emerging markets and North American OEM supply posted organic sales growth of 3% and 12% respectively.
Following a very soft finish to 2008, and an extension of those market conditions into the first few days of 2009, we were pleased to see activity levels rebound to a limited degree and then stabilize through the balance of the ...
I spoke with David DeLong, author of "Lost Knowledge: Confronting the Threat of an Aging Workforce," for the latest issue of MDM. He shared with me a case study about effective knowledge transfer from the older generation of workers to the younger.
DeLong features a host of case studies on his Web site, www.lostknowledge.com. In one, about manufacturer Boston Scientific, the company faced the retirement of highly skilled workers who were specialists in knitting, weaving and yarn texturizing work on intricate machines that knit or weave special yarn into tube-like grafts. (This plant specialized in manufacturing surgical grafts and fabrics used to treat vascular ...
