Paris-based electrical distributor Rexel, No. 2 on MDM's list of the top 25 electrical distributors, reported sales were up 2.3 percent in the second quarter 2010. North America had a slight drop of 1.7 percent in the quarter; Europe (59 percent of sales) had 3.6 percent growth; and Asia-Pacific saw growth of 9.9 percent.
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In the U.S., sales were down 3.6 percent, an improvement from the distributor’s 16.7 percent sales decline in the first quarter 2010. Rexel has closed 30 branches over the past 12 months (8 percent of the total). Commercial end-markets have remained weak, but industrial and residential end-markets have shown signs of improvement, according to Rexel.
In the second quarter, profit was up 266.9 percent to 63.1 million euros.
In the first half, Rexel saw sales increase 1.6 percent. Copper-based cable prices had a positive impact of 3.2 percentage points in the first half of the year.
Rexel reported it has closed 114 branches over the past 12 months – and 13 in the second quarter.