Sysco earned $378.01 million in its fiscal first quarter, up from $216.9 million a year ago. The foodservice distributor had sales of $16.46 billion, up from $11.78 billion.
Cardinal Health earned $271 million in its fiscal first quarter, rebounding from a $253 million loss in the year-ago period. The health care distributor had quarterly revenue of $43.97 billion, up from $39.07 billion.
The Fastener Distributor Index from FCH Sourcing Network and R.W. Baird had an October reading of 56.1, signaling continued expansion and up 1.9 percentage points from September. The FDI had decreased in September.
The Register Citizen (Torrington, Conn.)/The Associated Press
(11/8)
What can an ERP do for your distribution company? A lot more than you think. In any ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), there are baseline features: accounts payable, receivables, inventory tracking, forecasting. But there are other must-have features that can improve margins, allow for faster growth, and help you compete more effectively. Read the eBook
Southern California warehouse space is already in short supply, and 24/7 operations at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will further exacerbate the problem, notes economist John Husing. Meanwhile, the shortage of industrial space will continue in the near term, accompanied by higher rents, says J.C. Casillas of commercial real estate brokerage NAI Capital Commercial.
Warehouse operators that want to adopt robotics systems powered by artificial intelligence should evaluate their autonomy, ability to handle variability and learning speed, writes Tianhao Zhang of Covariant. "Much like an associate, the robot brain should learn from its successes and failures and continue to improve," Zhang writes.
Qualified's Dan Darcy offers three business-to-business brand-building tips he learned from Marc Benioff during his time at Salesforce. Darcy explains why transparency is crucial to build trust, the power of making the customer your brand's hero and the effectiveness of live demos.
Data can be a valuable asset when coaching salespeople, but managers must regularly share results with their teams to help them benefit from it, writes Colleen Francis. Be transparent about sales goals and each salesperson's progress to make coaching more effective, Francis writes.
Criticism can hurt, but it can also uncover areas of growth if you're willing to dig into your own fears, let go of people's opinions and remember the success you have achieved, writes LaRae Quy. "Thick-skinned people are not afraid to move into the unknown because they know they will discover more about their talents and skillsets," Quy writes.
AI has completely changed the landscape of B2C sales -- the companies that have adopted it deeply are dominating their competition. In part 2 of this series, we'll explore what B2B distributors can learn from these B2C companies and what kinds of problems distributors can solve with AI. Register here.
The NAW Executive Summit is back in-person January 25 - 27, 2022 and it will be bigger and better than ever before! Learn more about the NAW 2022 Executive Summit.
