Fastener Distributor Growth and Exit Opportunities
Are you a fastener distributor, or a distributor with fasteners as a significant percentage of your business and Have ambitions to grow the business but don’t have the capital? Perhaps think “I could be a mini-Fastenal in a bigger pond than I’m currently in?” Or, perhaps, you’ve been thinking of exiting the business and know that the business is…
Spotlight
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…
Honeywell’s “Post‑Spin Pop” With a Strong Q2, Sharper Portfolio, and a Clearer Industrial Story
Honeywell Technologies, after the June 29, 2026, spin‑off of Honeywell Aerospace and the earlier separation of Solstice Advanced Materials, is now a three‑segment industrial automation and…
How Agentic AI Could Change How Industrial Supplies Are Bought
Amidst the conversation about AI, data centers and the industrial construction market, all of which distributors benefit from, there is another conversation that, as typical,…
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…
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How Agentic AI Could Change How Industrial Supplies Are Bought
Amidst the conversation about AI, data centers and the industrial construction market, all of which distributors benefit from, there is another conversation that, as typical, starts on the consumer side and then migrates to B2B. This is how AI is / may change business models … and when Inevitably it does not occur as quickly as the Big 4 consulting…
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 entity operates in the distribution space – GPC as part of a larger company, so a spin-off is logical. GPC Spins Off Motion GPC is splitting into two stand-alone companies, with Motion Industries revenue around…
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, but underlying a familiar tension for industrial distributors – can you keep winning share at scale without giving back too much margin? The answer thus far has been “mostly yes,” but with caveats around price–cost,…
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…
