McJunkin Red Man Corp., Houston, TX, has acquired The South Texas Supply Company Inc., as part of its strategic focus to increase its presence in the active shale plays across North America. To support oil and gas exploration & production as well as the pipeline and transmission infrastructure, MRC will be expanding operations and inventory in these active shales both organically and through acquisition, such as South Texas Supply within the Eagle Ford Shale, according to a press release. South Texas Supply operates two branch locations in the region, Carrizo Springs, TX, and Dilley, TX, and has supplied oilfield products to the region since 1996. More

The president of Kaman Industrial Technologies Corp. , a subsidiary of Bloomfield, CT-based Kaman Corp., has announced his retirement. T. Jack Cahill will retire on Aug. 31, 2010, after 17 years in that post. Steven J. Smidler, senior vice president and COO, will assume the role of president following Cahill’s departure. More

St. Louis, MO-based Graybar has appointed Steve Stone to the position of vice president, comm/data. Stone has been with Graybar for more than 12 years, serving in several sales and management roles, most recently as director of comm/data sales for the company’s Pittsburgh region. More

Airgas Inc., Radnor, PA, released a statement responding to the second extension by Air Products & Chemicals Inc. of its unsolicited tender offer and Air Products’ statement that only 15,981 shares of Airgas common stock, representing less than 0.02 percent of the issued and outstanding shares, had been tendered into the offer. More

Bearing Headquarters, Broadview, IL, has made two new vice president appointments. Jim Scardina, most recently a senior vice president for the bearing and power transmission distributor, has been promoted to vice president of supplier relations. Scardina replaces John Timble who is retiring. In addition, J. R. Hogan has been promoted to vice president. Hogan has been with BHQ since 1998 in sales and national accounts. More

Master distributor United Stationers, Deerfield, IL, has created an e-commerce group to serve resellers’ e-commerce needs. The new group is responsible for supporting resellers’ technology platforms and integrating United Stationers technology and services into those platforms. More

Rexnord LLC, Milwaukee, WI, reported sales for the fiscal year ended March 31 were $1.51 billion, down 20 percent from fiscal 2009. Consolidated core sales also declined 20 percent. The manufacturer recorded a year-end loss of $5.6 million, compared to a year ago loss of $394.3 million. Fourth quarter sales were $407 million, a decline of 6 percent compared with the prior year fourth quarter. Core sales contracted 8 percent. Profit was $11.1 million, compared with a loss of $7.8 million the prior year. More

High-profit distribution firms had a pre-tax profit margin nearly 5 percentage points higher in 2009 than the typical firm’s pre-tax profit margin, according to the 2010 PT Distributor Performance Report. When asked in October 2008 to forecast sales for 2009, nearly one-third of distribution firms predicted sales declines. According to the report, typical sales volume of power transmission/motion control distributors in 2009 was down 19.2 percent. More

Columbus McKinnon Corp. , Amherst, NY, reported sales for the year ended March 31 were $476.2 million, a decline of 21.5 percent from the prior year. The manufacturer of material handling products recorded a full-year loss of $7.0 million, compared to a year-ago loss of $78.4 million. For the fourth quarter, sales were $123.0 million, down 9.4 percent from the same period a year ago. Profit was $0.46 million, compared to a year-ago loss of $102.5 million. More

Bearings manufacturer RBC Bearings Inc., Oxford, CT, reported sales for the fiscal year ended April 3, 2010, were $247.7 million, down 22.8 percent from fiscal year 2009. Profit declined 29.2 percent to $24.4 million. For the fourth quarter, sales were $79.8 million, a decrease of 4.8 percent from the same period a year ago. Profit improved 49.1 percent to $9.7 million. More

Economic activity continued to improve in all 12 Federal Reserve Districts, although many Districts described the pace of growth as “modest,” according to the latest Federal Reserve Beige Book. Consumer spending and tourism activity generally increased. Employment and capital spending edged up, but inventory investment slowed. More

The May Index of Small Business Optimism as published by the National Federation of Independent Business of gained 1.6 points, increasing to 92.2. It is the best reading since September 2008 (92.9), just before the 5.4 point decline in October. More