separate division within Spenard, focusing on major commercial contractors, pipeline and oil companies.  ; More …
February 2007 sales of merchant wholesalers were $340.8 billion, up 1.2 percent from the revised January level and were up 7.1 percent from the February 2006 level. The January preliminary estimate was revised downward $0.5 billion or 0.1 percent. February sales of durable goods were down 0.8 percent from last month, but were up 4.4 percent from a year ago. More …
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The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods increased 1.0 percent in March, seasonally adjusted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported. This advance followed a 1.3 percent rise in February and a 0.6 percent decrease in January. The index for finished goods excluding foods and energy, or core inflation, was unchanged in March after moving up 0.4 percent in February. At the earlier stages of processing, prices received by producers of intermediate goods increased 1.0 percent in March following a 1.1 percent advance a month earlier, and the crude goods index rose 3.2 percent after climbing 8.9 percent in February. More …
Brady Corporation, Milwaukee, WI, acquired Sorbent Products Co., Inc., Somerset, NJ. Sorbent Products is a manufacturer of synthetic sorbent materials used in a variety of industrial maintenance and environmental applications for spill clean-up, containment and control.  ; More …
Kennametal Inc., Latrobe, PA, reported sales in the third quarter 2007 increased 7 percent on an organic basis to $616 million. Sales in the first nine months of fiscal 2007 were up 6 percent on an organic basis to $1.7 billion. More …
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Diversified industrial manufacturer Eaton Corporation, Cleveland, OH, reported an increase in sales of 5 percent in the first quarter 2007 to $3.2 billion. Profit was $234 million, up 15 percent. Sales growth in the first quarter included 1 percent from organic growth, 2 percent from acquisitions, and 2 percent from higher foreign exchange rates. End markets declined slightly more than 1 percent in the quarter, driven by the decline in the NAFTA heavy-duty truck market.  ; More …
Sandvik, Stockholm, Sweden, has agreed to buy Extec Screens and Crushers Ltd., Birmingham, UK. Sandvik has also agreed to buy Fintec Crushing and Screening Ltd., Belfast, UK. Extec and Fintec, respectively, are manufacturers of mobile crushing and screening equipment, including consumables and services to the international construction industry. Extec had sales of 1800 MSEK (US$266.4 million) in 2006. Fintec had sales of 560 MSEK (US$82.9 million) in 2006. More …
Becker Electric Supply, Dayton, OH, has purchased Eastgate Electric Supply Inc., Richmond, IN. The acquisition adds three new offices and 25 employees, the Dayton Business Journal reported. Becker now has 12 branches in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Georgia. More …
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Air Liquide, Paris, France, has acquired the engineering firm Lurgi, which is owned by Global Engineering Alliance, based on an equity value of 550 million euros, equivalent to an enterprise value of 200 million euros. The acquisition accelerates the growth of the Large Industries World Business Line, strengthening Air Liquide’s position in hydrogen markets and providing access to Coal to Liquid and Coal to Chemicals sectors. More …Paris-based electrical distributor Rexel Inc. reported sales of 2.576 million euro (US$3.509 billion) in the first quarter 2007, up 31 percent from the same period last year. Growth was 5.9 percent on a comparable basis. Rexel saw double-digit organic growth in Europe and Asia-Pacific, with flat sales in North America. Acquisitions added 545 million euro (US$742 million) in sales in 2006. More …
Grainger, Chicago, IL, reported sales of $1.5 billion in the first quarter, up 9 percent from the first quarter 2006. Profit increased 18 percent to $102 million. Daily sales increased 8 percent in January, 10 percent in February and 9 percent in March. Sales in the branch-based segment in the U.S., Mexico and China increased 10 percent in the first quarter. Daily sales grew by 9 percent in January, 11 percent in February and 11 percent in March. Sales in the U.S. were up 10 percent. The strongest sales growth in the U.S. came from government customers followed by commercial markets. More …
Motion Industries, Birmingham, AL, has acquired Jonesboro Bearing & Supply, Jonesboro, AR. Jonesboro Bearing has two locations: Jonesboro, AR, and Stuttgart, AR. Jonesboro is a distributor of bearings, power transmission, industrial supplies and fasteners. Motion Industries, a division of Genuine Parts Co. with 2006 sales of $3.1 billion, is an industrial parts distributor with more than 500 locations. More …
U.S. housing starts were generally flat in March from the month before, but 23 percent below the March 2006 rate. Year-to-date, housing starts were down 24.2 percent in the Northeast, 38 percent in the Midwest, 38.3 percent in the South and 30.7 percent in the West. Permits, year-to-date, were down 21.1 percent in the Northeast, 32.8 percent in the Midwest, 28 percent in the South, and 24.8 percent in the West. More …
U.S. manufacturing is poised for continued growth as the year progresses, withstanding current challenges, according to the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI Survey on the Business Outlook, a leading indicator for the industrial sector.  ; The March 2007 composite index of 58 is up from 54 reported in the December 2006 survey and breaks a three-quarter slide of decreases. A composite business index above 50 indicates that overall manufacturing activity is expected to increase over the next three months to six months.  ; The index measures the direction of change rather than the absolute strength of activity in manufacturing.  ;
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WESCO International Inc., Pittsburgh, PA, distributor of electrical MRO products and construction materials, reported sales of $1.45 billion in the first quarter 2007, up 15 percent from the same period a year ago. Sales from the acquisition of Communications Supply Corp., purchased in the fourth quarter 2006, were about $160 million. Core electrical sales rose 2 percent, while sales at CSC added 13 percent to consolidated sales revenue. More …
Anixter International Inc., Glenview, IL, distributor of communication products, electrical and electronic wire & cable and a distributor of fasteners and other small parts, reported sales of $1.33 billion in the first quarter 2007, up 24 percent from the same period last year. Profit was up 71 percent to $53.6 million. Sales in the first quarter grew at a year-over-year organic rate of 19 percent. More …
Pentair, Inc., Golden Valley, MN, sales increased 5 percent in the first quarter 2007 to $808 million from the first quarter of 2006. Profit was flat from the same period a year ago. Pentair reported challenges due to slowing North American residential housing starts and headwinds in the electronic markets, as well as consolidation in the telecommunication industry. More …
Illinois Tool Works Inc., Glenview, IL, reported sales increased 14 percent in the first quarter 2007, and profit went up 10 percent. Revenue was $3.76 billion. The increase came from strong results in international end markets tempered by slowing growth in a number of North American end markets. Total company base revenues grew 1 percent, with international base revenues increasing 8.9 percent and North American revenues declining 3.5 percent. Acquisitions added 10.7 percent to first-quarter revenues. More …
SKF Group reported sales of SEK 14,371 million (US$2.131 billion) in the first quarter 2007, up 8 percent. Profit was up by 5 percent. SKF reported that sales were significantly higher in Europe and Asia. Sales in North America were relatively unchanged and sales in Latin America were higher.  ; More …The Fastenal Company, Winona, MN, sales of $489,157 for the first quarter ended March 31, 2007, an increase of 13.3 percent over the same period last year. Profit increased 12.9 percent. During the first three months of 2007, Fastenal opened 73 new sites, as it did in the first quarter 2006. There were 2,000 sites as of Dec. 31, 2006. More …
February U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $268.37 million, according to the Association for Manufacturing Technology and the American Machine Tool Distributors’Association. This total, as reported by companies participating in the USMTC program, was down 9.7 percent from January, and down 6.3 percent from the total of $286.29 million reported for February 2006. With a year-to-date total of $565.54 million, 2007 was up 9.4 percent compared with 2006. More …
Huttig Building Products, Inc., St. Louis, MO, a domestic distributor of millwork, building materials and wood products, reported sales for the first quarter 2007 were $222.4 million, down 21 percent from $281.1 million in 2006. Sales to national accounts for Huttig, which represented 36 percent of sales in the first quarter 2007, as compared with 34 percent last year, declined by 16 percent. Huttig reports there is no indication that the new housing construction market is likely to pick up this year, but reports it believes the market has stabilized. More …
Saint-Gobain’s Building Distribution Sector has acquired three distributors in Europe: Vemac (Italy), Discesur (Spain) and Sch& auml; fer (Germany). Vemac is one of the country’s largest builders’merchants based in Abruzzo. The business has 10 branches, employs 187 people and recorded net sales of & euro; 66 million in 2006. Following the opening of a second La Plateforme du B& acirc; timent store at the beginning of 2007 in Milan, Saint-Gobain Building Distribution reinforces its presence in the Italian market. More …
Anchorage, AK-based Spenard Builders Supply, a division of Pro-Build Holdings, Denver, CO, has acquired Polar Supply Co., which operates in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Kenai, according to the Home Channel News. Polar Supply specializes in products required to build and maintain roads, bridges and pipelines and adds to Spenard’s commercial product offerings. Polar Supply’s three facilities will each operate as a
