Over the past few weeks, a number of national distributors have released their 2024 performance and earnings reports. AD, Grainger, Fastenal and others have made news. We've also talked to a number of manufacturers who see the "highlight" numbers and use them as benchmarks, so we've reviewed and sought to find some trends. Overall, business is improving or stable depending on … [Read more...] about Industrial Distributor: Year End Performance 2024 – AD, Fastenal and Grainger
Industry Insights
Opinion: Grainger Q4 and Year End Results…..Interesting
It's Q4 earning season, providing distributors (and manufacturers) with an opportunity to benchmark their performance, gain insights (or confirmation) on what they are seeing in the market and possibly learn a little from publicly held companies. Grainger just released their Q4 and Full year results for 2024 which is always interesting to dive deep into their … [Read more...] about Opinion: Grainger Q4 and Year End Results…..Interesting
MSC Industrial’s Big Pricing Reset is big news for Industrial Distribution
In Part 1 of the series and collaboration with Modern Distribution Management we covered the "big" changes a leading distributor - MSC Industrial is making to their pricing model. The latest distributor series I have written with MDM starts with a deep dive into MSC's pricing changes. After a somewhat challenging 2024, the metalworking and MRO supplies distributor continues to … [Read more...] about MSC Industrial’s Big Pricing Reset is big news for Industrial Distribution
What Industrial end customer trends are crucial for 2025?
In 2015 when I was on the HD Supply distribution team, I started some research with the goal of getting feedback to make better pricing decisions with direct surveys for our associates. We were roughly a $2 billion dollar business trying to improve our GM% and profits. Over the past ten years that survey has grown in size and scope to include end customers, distributor … [Read more...] about What Industrial end customer trends are crucial for 2025?
10 Technology Trends for Industrial Distributors in 2025
Technology is an ever-growing element of improving customer experience and corporate profitability for a distributor. The days of only having an ERP and the equivalent of MS Office on a server are gone. Nowadays every function within the business benefits from technology and essentially there is now “an app for that” inferring if you can conceive it, there is technology that … [Read more...] about 10 Technology Trends for Industrial Distributors in 2025
