Watsco reported $37.3 million in net income for the fourth quarter on revenue of $1.07 billion, while full-year profit was $246 million on $4.77 billion in revenue. Fourth-quarter same-store sales were up by 1%.
State of the Wholesale Supply Chain Industry in 2020 The wholesale supply chain industry continues to look for ways to solve challenges around predicting shifting consumer preferences, volatility with suppliers and long lead times, and e-commerce growth that's increasing price transparency. Despite these obstacles, the industry collectively posted year-over-year sales growth of 8% in 2019, similar to the prior year. Get the key findings for Blue Ridge's wholesale supply chain industry 2020 survey.
Distributors need to keep up with constantly changing technology to ensure their customers have the best buying experience, writes consultant Adam Labadie, formerly of MSC Industrial Supply. He discusses five simple ways to improve your technology and customer service.
Fewer robots were installed by US companies in 2019 than in the previous year, although new orders in North America increased, suggesting the downturn could be temporary, according to Association for Advancing Automation data.
Some 78% of business-to-business marketing and sales executives say revenue growth is challenging and 95% believe customer experience is vital to boost growth, per Leandata and Sales Hacker. Additionally, 84% believe marketing and sales teams share the responsibility for revenue but 37% concede that their departments "aren't optimally aligned within their own companies to maximize revenue-growth potential," the survey finds.
Leaders must master personal and mass communication and use each depending on the theme and purpose of their messaging, writes Scott Eblin. Stick with simple, easy-to-remember messages when communicating broadly, he writes, and save the nuance for face-to-face interaction.
New leaders must shift their focus from individual success to helping others learn new skills and develop their strengths, writes Naphtali Hoff. "Leadership offers leaders an opportunity to make a broad and deep impact on others and the organization," Hoff writes.
In his latest NAW Blog post, NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence Fellow Mark Dancer says that to build a winning customer-driven digital value chain requires new foresight and smart investments. It won't happen overnight, but a customer-driven digital value chain is the future. To be ready, distributors must begin retooling their people, culture, digital investments and innovation plans. Read his post.
Growing in popularity within our industry, the NAW Certificate in Distribution Professional Management Program is ideal for your high-potential managers who seek to complement their professional development with a strong emphasis on practical application within the distribution field. Two, one-week sessions at Texas A&M University in 2020 focus on Distributor Capability Development (April 13-17) and Optimizing Distributor Profitability (Oct. 19-23). Get all the details and enroll your high achievers today before the seats are gone.
"Unlock the Power of Inventory Analytics: Aligning Working Capital to Customer Experience to Maximize Your Bottom Line" is based on 15 years of distribution research. It reveals the fundamentals and contemporary practices for designing the role of inventory in this era of ever-evolving new business models. You'll receive an inventory management framework, customer service metrics, a step-by-step implementation approach, real-world distributor case studies and a plan-of-action road map. Take a look by reading the introduction.
