AmerisourceBergen posted $960.3 million in net income on $47.42 billion in revenue during the second fiscal quarter, with both figures up from a year earlier. The company also said it would buy back $500 million in shares.
DistributionNOW reported $604 million in first-quarter sales, a decline of more than 23% year over year, and posted a loss after a year-earlier profit. The company will reduce headcount by 1,250 this year and has closed some physical locations, says interim CEO Dick Alario.
Office Depot's first-quarter sales were down 2% overall, with business solutions sales down 1%, but the company said e-commerce business increased. Office Depot's profit of $45 million was more than five times greater than the year-ago figure.
Maintaining Business Continuity in Tough Times The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the global economy and changed the way businesses operate. Modern enterprises don't have time for service disruption. Overnight, every business needs to reassess how to do more, with less. Learn how Sales Order Automation allows companies like Genpak to do more with less in this webinar.
Businesses should prepare for "volatile shock waves of product supply and demand over the next year or more," which automated systems aren't designed to handle, write Jonathan Byrnes and John Wass. They offer a three-step process to help remediate issues and note that those that succeed will gain "their customers' loyalty both in today's period of crisis, and in the years beyond."
Just 15% of business-to-business companies now intend to spend more on software as a result of the pandemic, compared to 40% who were asked the same question in March. The top areas where B2B companies are increasing software spend are web conferencing and collaboration tools, and the top areas picked for a reduction in investment are marketing software and IT support.
Marketing content must answer the critical question "Why change?" to be effective, writes Laura Ramos of research company Forrester. She recommends creating "content brimming with data, stories, illustrations, and examples that recommend new approaches to solving customers' issues."
Being good at remote meetings is about simple things: being prepared, asking questions, writing down notes to address later and listening for common themes brought up by colleagues, Sarah Gershman writes. "Ironically, one of the best ways to be heard is to be a good listener," she writes.
Due to the fluidity of current economic conditions, Alan Beaulieu will present a second NAW webinar on Thursday, May 28, 3:00-4:30 p.m. EDT. He will walk through the newest data to show how bad the falloff in April really was. He'll identify the timing and slope of contraction/rise by industry segment so you can effectively pivot your business. He'll then paint a longer-term view for Post COVID-19 conditions to help you make your strategic plans. Purchase your seat.
In his post, NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence Fellow Mike Marks talks about how despite the current frenzied activity tied to the pandemic, distributors can look ahead and develop a near-term strategy to move forward and make the uncertain a little more certain. He advises distributors to perform a stress test and then line up their cost reduction strategies. Read his important post.
