Distributors & Lighting
COLONIAL ELECTRIC—this distributor, based in King of Prussia, Pa., is
expanding its retail lighting operation to Fairfax, Va., according to the May
17 Washington Business Journal. Colonial’s Annapolis lighting subsidiary
is opening a location that formerly housed Burgess Lighting, which now has one
location left, in Forestville, according to the newspaper.
KIRBY RISK—this electrical distributor made news in April when customer
Caterpillar showed off efficient LED lighting at its 750,000-square-foot Lafayette
Engine Center in Indiana. From John Burke, president of KBES, as quoted in
the article:
“This is a new style of lighting for this application, and it’s
far superior to anything else available. In terms of lighting design, the quality
of light these fixtures produce is more than four times greater than what was
there previously.”
METRO LIGHTING—the showroom of this retailer in Berkeley, Calif., won
an environmental award “for its impeccable green credentials,” according to
Berkeleyside.com.
The business focuses on “restoring and crafting light fixtures,” including “rebuilding
antique lighting.”
PLASTICS FOR LIGHTING—named master distributor for the Pacific Northwest
for A.L.P. Lighting Components
SONEPAR USA—in combining with Acuity Brands and OSRAM Sylvania, Sonepar
was a sponsor of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts. Release.
From Jay Bricker, executive vice president: “PIFA’s 2011 theme focusing on the
excitement, innovation, and inspiration of Paris some 100 years ago, allowed
us to pay tribute to both Paris, the global headquarters of our parent company,
as well as Philadelphia, home to Sonepar USA.
“That legacy of energy, collaboration, and innovation continues
to inspire us all a century later.”
ULSTER ELECTRIC—Richard Wilkins, operations manager for this company
in New York (with locations in Kingston and Poughkeepsie), was quoted recently
in a Poughkeepsie Journal article on energy-efficient lighting. Unfortunately,
the article is no longer available online.
From Wilkins: “There’s always something new coming out. Lighting
technology is going to change within the next 10 to 15 years. Architects are
seeing rebates for using energy-efficient products in new construction, including
commercial projects.”
Electrical/Datacom
BAES opens in Ada—Broken Arrow Electric Supply, Broken Arrow, Okla.,
has opened up in Ada, Okla., “It's a great fit for us in terms of geography,”
according to Mick Leibold, vice president, “a natural extension of our current
branch locations.” Branch manager: Mike Hayes, a partner for the past 13 years
in an EC company and an Ada native, who also comes with 10 years of electrical
distribution industry experience.
BSE & the xVu—Fargo, North Dakota-headquartered Border States
Electric is teaming with Mariner “to jointly market xVu”— an “award-winning
IPTV service assurance platform.” Release.
CED & nonpayment—from the April 18 The
Southeast Texas Record: In a recently filed lawsuit, First National Insurance
Company of America alleges Bay Electric Services Inc. “wrongfully diverted contract
proceeds for its own benefit.” A lawsuit filed April 4 in Galveston County District
Court argues that Bay failed to pay Consolidated Electrical Distributors in
the amount of at least $79,926 in accordance to an agreement the parties entered
for a renovation and expansion project with the city of Galveston.
Distributor with a mobile app—the distributor (which markets
HVAC, plumbing security, communication, and electrical products) is Denmark-based
Solar A/S, which also operates in Norway, The Netherlands, and Sweden. From
Morten Borup, marketing manager for solar:
We have spent some time analyzing our customers’ behavior to
offer just the right services, and we see many exciting possibilities with this
new behavior tool. In the first introduction phase, we have focused on basic
functions such as product search and ordering but later we will expand with
new services.
Irby’s Jackson DC is shovel ready!—thanks to a planned
investment of more than $6 million, Stuart C. Irby Company (a unit of Sonepar
USA) has broken ground on a new distribution center in Jackson, Miss. The downtown
location, to be a state-of-the-art DC, follows—by 85 years—the debut of the
distributor in Jackson.
Caption for the photo below as supplied by the company (from
left to right): Dale McMurry, Irby director of facilities; John Honigfort,
Irby CFO; Andy Waring, Irby COO; Mayor Harvey Johnson; Mike Wigton, Irby president;
Governor Haley Barbour; Supervisor George Smith; Gene Tremmier, Irby C&I
branch manager; Gary Tucker, Irby utility branch manager
Transcat’s FY11—fiscal 2011 ended March 26 at Transcat,
the distributor of handheld test and measurement instruments (and more). For
the fiscal year, revenue of $91.2 million was up 12.5%. Of note: “Sales to wind
energy customers accounted for 5.5% (FY11) and 8.8% (FY10) sales.”
Elsewhere In Distribution
ALMO PROFESSIONAL A/V—this unit of distributor Almo drew more than 2,000
attendees to four educational events in 2010. See
CE Pro report. From Sam Taylor, executive vice president/COO: We work
to educate our resellers in three ways—1) our E4 partnership, which is four
times a year; 2) our webinar series, where we work with our manufacturer partners
to actually teach the integration of their latest models; and 3) our Almo Edge
loyalty rewards program, where they can accrue points to redeem to get training
for their staff.
FASTENAL—the company’s focus on “same-day service” won a headline in
an Investor’s
Business Daily (April 28) article. However, within the piece you’ll find
a sentence that says the company hopes to “grow beyond 3,500 stores in north
America, up from 2,500 today.”
GRAINGER
- April sales—sales in the United States were up 10% in April vs.
April 2010. Overall (including all operations) the company said, daily sales
were up 14%.
- Dividend—the company increased the cash dividend paid to shareholders
by 22%. Shareholders will now (assuming nothing changes) get $.66 per quarter—a
yield of 1.8% on the company’s recent stock price. Note: It’s said
to be the 40th consecutive annual increase, an unusual record in
corporate America these days.
- Donation—Acklands-Grainger, the company’s operation in Canada, donated
$160,000 to fund a welding workshop to a training center to benefit the nonprofit
group Women Building Futures, according to the May 6 Edmonton Journal.
- Electrical products sales—according to tedmag.com’s brief dive into
Grainger’s 2011 factbook, the company in 2010 had U.S. sales by product line
that included:
- Electrical: 8%
- Lighting: 7%
- Motors: 3%
- That 18% represents roughly $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion in 2011 sales,
going by the company’s projections for this year.
- Safety catalog—Grainger released its first-ever catalog for safety
professionals. It includes 6,000 products, according to Catalog Age.
HD SUPPLY UTILITIES—from an article posted to the site of Chief
Learning Officer: “The ULT [Utilities Learning Team] responded
by capitalizing on HD Supply’s doing, learning, winning culture to build a competitive,
differentiating learning structure leveraging talent to strongly position the
company against its competitors. In August 2010, when a potential supplier stated
during a webinar session that every program it offered had shifted from classroom
to virtual in 18 months, ULT members looked at each other and gave the proverbial
wink; they had executed the exact same project in less than nine months.”
Note: If you click through, note that CLO spread
the article over five web pages.
INTERLINE BRANDS—Q1 of FY11 ended April 1 with sales of $297 million,
up 21%. Average organic sales were up 4.3% for the quarter. “The professional
contractor end-market, which comprised 14% of sales, increased 9.1% for the
quarter,” the company said. From Michael Grebe, chairman and CEO: “Looking ahead,
we recognize that our end-markets are still in the early stage of a recovery.”
© 2012 The Electrical Distributor. All rights reserved.