Distribution associations, Kahle partner to present seminars
ISMA/I.D.A. name American Eagle Award winners
Timken begins talks with union over Canton plant closures
Sterling Supply wins Toyota Award of Excellence
Parker Hannifin increases earnings guidance
PMA lowers economic expectations for next three months
New report details major trends in distribution
ITW sees revenues grow in latest three months
Grainger names senior VP of human resources
Motion Industries wins Gillette Omnimark Award
Safety Today named Outstanding Business Partner
Wright Tool wins award for 152 percent sales growth
Machine tool consumption declines in April
Ridgid power tools sales increase
Black & Decker sees power tool demand increase
Home Depot to expand to China

Distribution associations, Kahle partner to present seminars
Distribution sales consultant Dave Kahle and eight national associations announced a series of one-day Top Gun Survival Schools for distributor salespeople.

"Distributors are more and more concerned about new challenges being thrown at them," said Kahle. "The marketplace is changing dramatically due to increasing competition, the rise of e-commerce, expansion of alternate channels and new pressures from supplies. This means customers have less time to spend with salespeople. Distributor salespeople have more pressure on them today than at any time in the past."

To combat these changes, Kahle designed these one-day seminars, targeted specifically at equipping distributor salespeople to succeed in the 21st century sales environment. The seminars, first presented in 2002, have grown in number and attendance annually. This year, they will be presented in seven sites around the U.S.

Sponsoring associations include:
• North American Building Material Distribution Association (NMBDA)
• Association of Millwork Distributors (AMD);
• Specialty Tools and Fasteners Distributors Association (STAFDA);
• Safety Equipment Distributors Association (SEDA);
• Post Card and Souvenir Distributors Association (PCSDA);
• American Supply Association (ASA);
• Pet Industry Distributors Association (PIDA):
• Western Fastener Distributors Association (WFDA).

The content in the seminars reflects the aggressive nature of the changes involved in the industry and the proactive skills needed to counter them successfully.

"We will be moving beyond theory here, and getting into some very specific tactics for survival and victory," said Kahle.

For information on costs and locations for the seminars, visit www.davekahle.com.

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ISMA/I.D.A. name American Eagle Award winners
Eleven manufacturers and distributors were honored with American Eagle Awards in separate classifications and special categories May 23-25 at ISCON 2004 in Orlando, Fla.

Industrial Supply Manufacturers Association (ISMA) and Industrial Distribution Association (I.D.A.) members across the nation annually compete for the American Eagle Awards, given to recognize corporate activities that best promote the principles of the American free enterprise system.

The overall winner in the manufacturing category was Weiler Corporation of Cresco, Pa. Acklands-Grainger, Inc. of Richmond Hill, Ontario, was the overall winner in the distributor category.

American Eagle contestants compete in one of four sales volume classifications:
• manufacturers over $20 million in annual sales;
• manufacturers under $20 million in annual sales;
• distributors over $10 million in annual sales; and,
• distributors under $10 million in annual sales.

There are overall program winners in each classification and category awards for:
• Community/Corporate Educational Commitment;
• Employee Enrichment & Involvement;
• Environmental Improvement & Conservation Efforts; and,
• Local Community Involvement.

The rest of the winners include the following.

Manufacturers over $20 million in annual sales:
• Community/Corporate Educational Commitment: Devcon, An Illinois Tool Works Co., Danvers, Mass.;
• Employee Enrichment & Involvement: Channellock Inc., Meadville, Pa.;
• Environmental Improvement & Conservation Efforts: 3M, St. Paul, Minn.;
• Local Community Involvement: LPS Laboratories, Tucker, Ga.

Manufacturers under $20 million in annual sales:
• Community/Corporate Educational Commitment: Whitney Tool Co., Bedford, Ind.;
• Local Community Involvement: Precision Brand Products Inc., Downers Grove, Ill.

Distributors over $10 million in annual sales:
• Community/Corporate Educational Commitment: Barnes Distribution, Cleveland;
• Local Community Involvement: MSC Industrial Direct, Melville, N.Y.

Distributors under $10 million in annual sales:
• Local Community Involvement: N.H. Bragg & Sons, Bangor, Maine.

Since the American Eagle Awards program was established in 1975, more than $100,000 in scholarship funds were awarded and more than 400 manufacturers and distributors participated in the competition.

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Timken begins talks with union over Canton plant closures
The Timken Co. and the United Steelworkers union met June 14 to begin the effects bargaining process involving the Canton, Ohio, bearing plants. In tandem with this process, the parties agreed over the next few weeks to explore the possibility of opening formal negotiations over the current labor contract.

The meeting was productive and the parties will be focusing on opportunities to lessen the impact on employment involving the recent closure announcement of the Canton bearing plants.

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Sterling Supply wins Toyota Award of Excellence
Toyota Motor Manufacturing West Virginia honored Sterling Supply with its Award of Excellence. Sterling Supply is a West Virginia member of IBC IndustrialSupplyPlus.

After commencing business with Toyota in 1998, Sterling Supply made it a goal to become Toyota’s top supplier in West Virginia.  Since then, the company moved closer to this world-class distinction, winning one of Toyota’s five “Excellence” awards for each of the past three years.

With its two locations in West Virginia, Sterling Supply specializes in abrasives and cutting tools but is currently servicing Toyota with a wide range of maintenance, repair, operations and production (MROP) products.

“Out of 1,170 orders, in an average month, we were 99.4 percent on-time," said John Zitter, president of Sterling Supply. "We focused on providing excellent and reliable service to Toyota. We paid attention to the customers within the plant and we watched the numbers carefully. Plain and simple we worked hard and continually had a desire to be considered world-class.”

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Parker Hannifin increases earnings guidance
Parker Hannifin Corp. raised earnings estimates for its fiscal fourth quarter and full year ending June 30. With quarterly earnings previously forecast to range from 70 cents to 80 cents per diluted share, the company now expects to earn between 85 cents and 95 cents per diluted share in the quarter, which would revise the full-year range to $2.70 to $2.80 per diluted share.

The company said recent orders continued to exceed expectations, driving sales and profits higher, with substantially lower operating costs and robust shipments.

Parker president and CEO Don Washkewicz said if demand continues at the current pace, he expects an upbeat 2005, with the new fiscal year beginning July 1. He said the company will provide a full-year outlook when it reports fourth quarter results July 29.

"We're staying focused on our Win Strategy, because it is clearly delivering positive results," said Washkewicz.

He stressed three priorities for the company:
• to maintain gains achieved on the cost side;
• to win global market share with Total Parker Systems; and,
• to generate record cash flow to be utilized to support innovation and external growth.

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PMA lowers economic expectations for next three months
Metalforming companies expect a modest decline in current average daily shipping levels and expressed a cautious view of the outlook for overall economic activity for the next three months, according to the Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) June 2004 Business Conditions Report.

Expectations for incoming orders over the next three months were also lowered, perhaps reflecting little more than seasonal decline as summer approaches. Conducted monthly, the report is an economic indicator for manufacturing and is based on data provided by 198 metalforming companies. Information is based on business conditions as of June 1.

Metalforming companies reported modest growth in shipping levels for most of the past year, after nearly 30 months of flat performance brought on by the manufacturing recession, which began in fall 2000.

In the June 2004 report, a fairly strong 53 percent continued to project higher shipments, but that was down from the 66 percent projecting increases in May 2004. Another 30 percent expect no change in shipments in June, up from 26 percent who projected no change in shipments in May. A total of 17 percent predicted their shipments would decline, up from 8 percent who expected declines in May’s report.

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New report details major trends in distribution
Pembroke Consulting and the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) recently released the study, Facing the Forces of Change: The Road to Opportunity, identifying four major trends impacting wholesalers and distributors in the business-to-business supply chain out to 2008.

The four key trends identified by the report include the following.

Fee-based services: Wholesalers and distributors in many industries are evolving from low-margin box movers to innovative value-added services providers. More than 80 percent of the wholesaler-distributors surveyed plan to offer new fee-based services. Healthcare and high-tech are on the vanguard of this shift.

Customer self-service: Business customers are taking a more active role in the pre-sale and transaction portions of the buying process as comprehensive product information moves online. As a result, the sales force's perceived value in educating customers about new products and in-use applications will be significantly eroded.

Strategic sourcing: Business customers are gaining additional bargaining power by analyzing their internal spending data with spending analysis software. Aggressive sourcing tools such as online reverse auctions are here to stay and will continue to grow.

Core business competition: Competition for wholesale distribution's core logistics and fulfillment functions will greatly intensify. Eighty percent of the 200 largest logistics companies already offer pick-pack-ship services in direct competition to wholesale distribution.

The report's findings are based upon responses from more than 1,400 wholesale distribution and manufacturing executives. A free summary of the report is available for download here.

"This report offers a compelling and comprehensive view of the trends influencing value chains across nearly every industry," said Pembroke Consulting president Adam J. Fein. "These trends are accelerating as the economy continues to rebound, putting wholesalers and distributors on the forefront of a rapidly changing economy."

Fein will present the detailed findings of this study during the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors' Technology & Logistics conference, held June 22-23 in Chicago. For more information, click here.

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ITW sees revenues grow in latest three months
Illinois Tool Works Inc. reported an operating revenue increase of 21 percent for the three months ended May 31, 2004. Operating revenues for the three-month period consisted of 10 percent growth from base revenues, a 5 percent increase from acquisitions, and a 6 percent contribution from currency translation.

Base revenues for the three-month period continued to reflect strength in the company's North America and international end markets.

On a manufacturing segment basis, the company's three-month moving average percentage change for operating revenues, comprised of base revenues and acquisitions, is provided below.

After two months of actual results and improved base revenue performance thus far in the 2004 second quarter, the company is moving its second quarter earnings range estimate upward to $1.14 to $1.18 for income per diluted share from continuing operations. For full-year 2004, the company is raising its earnings range estimate to $4.16 to $4.36 for income per diluted share from continuing operations.

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Grainger names senior VP of human resources
Grainger named James A. Garman senior vice president of human resources, a role in which he will provide strategic direction and leadership for the design, development and execution of Grainger's human resource initiatives.

Garman will be responsible for ensuring that Grainger's human resource policies support business objectives and the company remains competitive in the marketplace through several key human resource functions including benefits, compensation, organization effectiveness and staffing. Garman also will lead the company's efforts to maintain effective employee relations across the organization, which includes nearly 600 worldwide branches, 17 distribution centers and 15,000 employees.

Prior to joining Grainger, Garman served as vice president of human resources for the space technology division of Northrop Grumman Corp., where he was responsible for all strategic human resource functions for the space and defense business with more than 8,700 employees.

From 1988 to 2002, Garman held a number of senior human resources positions at TRW, prior to its acquisition by Northrop Grumman. His earlier career included several years in the human resources organization of American Honda Motor Company Inc.

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Motion Industries wins Gillette Omnimark Award
Motion Industries received the Gillette Omnimark Award for outstanding quality and service for 2003, according to Bill Stevens, Motion Industries' president and CEO. It is extremely rare for the award to go to an indirect material supplier, he said.

"This is a great compliment to our people that serve the accounts, the products we provide and the processes by which we serve our customers," said Stevens.

The Gillette Omnimark Award is global in scope, and is given in recognition of outstanding quality and service to the Gillette Company. It is awarded to the best strategic sourcing partners.

"Gillette is pleased to award Motion Industries our highest supplier honor, The Omnimark Award," said Evelyn Suarez, purchasing agent for Gillette. "We recognize that Gillette cannot excel in quality and service to our customers without outstanding contributions from suppliers such as Motion Industries."

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Safety Today named Outstanding Business Partner
Safety Today Inc. received the Outstanding Business Partners award for 2003 from Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. (TMMK) during the TMMK Annual Purchasing Policy Meeting and Awards Ceremony in Lexington, Ky.

Safety Today was one of six parts and service suppliers to earn this distinction and was the only safety service company in the class.

"TMMK and Safety Today have had a successful partnership for many years and we're proud of the work we're doing together," said Safety Today president Ted Cowie. "The relationship works because we have built a strong working relationship with plant safety and production teams while delivering consistent cost savings and on-time performance."

To be eligible for the awards, TMMK suppliers must meet the highest level of expectations in the areas of safety, cost containment, quality, delivery and management support. Safety Today has supplied TMMK with gloves and other important safety supplies for more than 15 years.

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Wright Tool wins award for 152 percent sales growth
Wright Tool received a Gold Circle of Excellence award from Sphere 1, a national purchasing cooperative of tool and fastener distributors. Known for its sockets, wrenches and ratchets, Wright tool is a manufacturer of professional hand tools.

Wright Tool received the gold award for achieving outstanding sales growth in 2003. The company's sales increased 152 percent in 2003 from the previous year.

Wright Tool competed against 41 companies to receive the gold award. Ten companies were recognized, overall.

"Wright Tool is honored to receive this recognition," said Greg Helbling, vice president of sales. "And, we look forward to maintaining our strong sales growth in 2004."

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Machine tool consumption declines in April
April U.S. machine tool consumption totaled $211 million, down 25.5 percent from March but up 45.2 percent from the total of $145.3 million reported for April 2003, according to the Association For Manufacturing Technology (AMT) and the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association (AMTDA).

With a year-to-date total of $829.8 million, 2004 is up 46.2 percent compared with 2003.

"It didn't surprise anyone that April machine tool orders were softer than March numbers," said AMT president John B. Byrd III. "After all, March was the best month the market has posted since March 2001, the market is running 46 percent ahead of 2003, and we expect the news to only get better."

U.S. machine tool consumption is also reported on a regional basis for five geographic break-downs of the United States.

Machine tool consumption in the Northeast stood at $33.7 million, up 8.2 percent compared to $31.1 million tallied in March and up 114.1 percent compared to April a year ago. Year-to-date consumption rose to $116.3 million, 66.3 percent ahead of 2003 at the same time.

Southern machine tool consumption in April totaled $29.8 million, down 40.4 percent from the March total of $50.1 million, but up 13.6 percent compared to April 2003. The $121.3 million year-to-date consumption total is 1.8 percent higher than the comparable figure a year ago.

At $78.1 million, Midwest machine tool consumption in April was 37.3 percent lower than $124.7 million in March, but up 27.5 percent compared to last April. The year-to-date total of $335.8 million was up 48.5 percent compared to the total for 2003 at the same time.

April machine tool consumption in the Central region totaled $39.2 million, down 23.3 percent compared to March's $51.1 million but up 46.1 percent compared to April a year ago. The year-to-date total of $149 million is 59 percent ahead of the comparable figure for 2003.

Totaling $30.3 million, Western machine tool consumption in April was up 15.3 percent from the previous month's $26.2 million and 98.5 percent higher than the total in April a year ago. The year-to date figure of $107.4 million puts this year 83.2 percent ahead of 2003 at the same time.

The United States Machine Tool Consumption (USMTC) report, jointly compiled by the two trade associations representing the production and distribution of manufacturing technology, provides regional and national U.S. consumption data of domestic and imported machine tools and related equipment.

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''Over the past six to 10 months, factory orders and sell-through of Ridgid tools have exceeded our own and retail expectations," said TTI chairman and CEO Horst Pudwill. "The Ridgid power tool line continues to sell on its merits of innovation, durability and quality. Expected growth will come from new products introduced this year, increased brand awareness and continued user satisfaction. We have just come off a successful fourth quarter in 2003, are more than satisfied with the first half of 2004 and are optimistic for the full year.''

At the same time, TTI announced Ridgid power tools will now carry a new three-year service warranty that provides free service and parts on normal wear items, including batteries. The new warranty is on all portable electric, cordless and bench and stationary power tools.

''No other power tool manufacturer extends service on normal wear items beyond one year. This warranty is meant to enhance and maintain the leadership that Ridgid power tools have achieved in the nine short months since we launched them,'' said Bob Freitag, president of TTI North America.

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Black & Decker sees power tool demand increase
The Black & Decker Corp. will meet or exceed its forecast of mid-single-digit sales growth, excluding currency translation and acquisitions, for the second quarter of 2004. The company credits the increase to strong demand in its power tools and accessories segment.

As a result, it expects second-quarter diluted earnings per share from continuing operations will meet or exceed securities analysts' mean estimate of $1.24. The corporation reported diluted earnings per share from continuing operations of 96 cents in the second quarter of 2003.

"Orders and sell-through for our North American power tools and accessories business have been excellent so far this quarter," said Nolan D. Archibald, chairman and CEO. "Further, our regular contact with key customers indicates that there will not be any disruption of order patterns in the coming weeks. Therefore, we continue to expect outstanding sales and earnings growth for the quarter."

The corporation will discuss its second-quarter results and the outlook for the remainder of 2004 during a conference call July 22.

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Home Depot to expand to China
The Home Depot announced it will create a business development operation based in China and named Bill E. Patterson to the newly created position of president of The Home Depot Asia.

Patterson will lead the company's expansion into China, one of the largest and fastest growing markets in the world. He will report directly to Bob Nardelli, chairman, president and CEO of The Home Depot.

Patterson, who served as president of the company's central division since 2002, joined The Home Depot in 1999.

"I am confident that Bill's international experience, operational skills and leadership abilities will drive a successful entry into the China market for The Home Depot," said Bob Nardelli.

The announcement is the company's latest move as it expands its market presence internationally. The Home Depot just completed its acquisition of Home Mart in Mexico, which doubled the company's presence in that country and firmly establishes it as the leader in Mexico's $15 billion home improvement market. In addition, the company will celebrate its 10th anniversary in Canada this year, where it operates more than 100 stores.

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