2026 Q2 Pulse of Industrial Supply … Organically Flat , Pricing Drives Revenue
Each quarter, Industrial Supply Trends, in conjunction with William Blair, conducts a quarterly Pulse of Industrial Supply survey. We gain input from a wide array of distributors and manufacturers so that we can correlate performance and then share with you the results. Survey respondents received a copy of the results in early July. Industrial Supply Channel … a Mosiac…
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Motion, DSG – Two Different Approaches to The Distribution Market
Genuine Auto Parts Company (GPC), and Distributor Solutions Group (DSG), are choosing two different ownership paths going forward. Both transactions make sense as each respective…
Fastenal Delivers Strong Growth But Exhibits Margin Pressure
Fastenal, best known as the industry’s national distributor of fasteners, announced 2Q26 earnings on July 14. The company delivered another quarter of top-line double-digit growth,…
3M’s Solid Results Signal Industrial Demand and Pricing Power Driven by Manufacturing Recovery
3M, a multinational conglomerate in the industrial, safety, and consumer goods segments, announced 2Q 2026 earnings on July 21, 2026. Revenue was $6.5 billion, an…
The New ISA Board: What It Tells Us About the Industrial Channel
ISA recently announced their 2026 / 2027 Board of Directors to represent the membership and guide the leadership on the member’s needs. Further, with ISA…
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3M’s Solid Results Signal Industrial Demand and Pricing Power Driven by Manufacturing Recovery
3M, a multinational conglomerate in the industrial, safety, and consumer goods segments, announced 2Q 2026 earnings on July 21, 2026. Revenue was $6.5 billion, an organic growth rate of 5.4%, driven by broad industrial strength, surging demand in semiconductors and data centers, strong execution and innovation, and a major rebound in China, with Safety & Industrial leading the company at…
The New ISA Board: What It Tells Us About the Industrial Channel
ISA recently announced their 2026 / 2027 Board of Directors to represent the membership and guide the leadership on the member’s needs. Further, with ISA having a small staff (by design), the Board of Directors also is the thought-leadership and idea generation segment of the association … it’s a think tank. So, I decided to use AI for two of…
The Death of “Trust Me” Selling
How One Distributor Turned a Top Performer’s Instinct into a Methodology Their Whole Sales Team Could Use Recently I was talking to Susan Merlo from The Digital Distributor, and we were discussing the industrial distribution market and distributor challenges. One of the topics was how distributors need to adjust their sales techniques in order to differentiate themselves to capture share…
NetPlus Members See Positive 2nd Half
NetPlus shared insights from its member survey and their performance” “A strong start to the year for NetPlus Alliance members is also signaling a strong 2026. Distributors shared their optimism grounded in sound strategies and industry observations. The Industry Outlook, a quarterly report based on a survey of NetPlus members, tracks business results and trends in the industrial and contractor…
Are You a Market Maker or a Market Server?
With this article we’re introducing a new contributor – Frank Hurtte from River Heights Consulting. Frank is known for his industrial sales expertise and has written two books on industrial sales – The Distributor Specialist: Customer Champion, Profit Generator and The New Sales Guy Project. Frank and I talk regularly, and we’ve collaborated on some projects together. Now he’s going…
MSC 2026 FYQ3 – Navigating the Pivot – Price, Sales Growth and Headcount
Price-Led Growth Gives Way to Early Volume Recovery MSC Industrial reported third quarter results on July 1, 2026. Net sales increased 7.8% to $1.047 billion, driven mainly by price with a little volume. Price contributed about 720 bps to growth; volume contributed roughly 50 bps, indicating an inflection back to positive volume after Q2 weakness. Gross margin was 41.1%, slightly…
“Be Like Mike?” Perhaps Data Like Grainger
Grainger probably has more eCommerce experience than any distributor. I remember back when they acquired a stake in MRO.com to form FindMRO.com. People thought they were crazy. In reality, it was probably a great experience from a learning perspective. They’ve built an eCommerce machine that also enables them to power Grainger.com and Zoro.com but also is the backbone of the…
The Hidden Tax of Returns: How Industrial Distributors Turn Dead Stock into Cash
Every distributor has seen it: return shelves overflowing with parts that came back from a customer, parts that never sold, and parts that are technically inventory but functionally furniture. Returns are the sleeper line item for industrial distributors (and even manufacturers!) They don’t show up in the sales meeting. They show up in the margin — months later, wearing a…
