MSC Industrial Direct has fiscal Q1 profit, revenue gains | Univar open to takeover offers beyond Brenntag | Beacon acquires building products distributor in Southeast
MSC Industrial Direct earned $81.3 million in its fiscal first quarter, up from $66.1 million a year ago. The distributor had quarterly revenue of $957.7 million, up 12.9% year over year from $848.5 million.
Univar Solutions and Brenntag have ended merger negotiations, and Univar says that while a potential deal involving some interests is still possible, it's also open to offers from other companies. Activist investor Engine Capital advised Univar to "publicly announce a competitive and formal sale process that invites additional parties to bid for the company."
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Business-to-business customers are using 10 or more channels -- both offline and online -- to make decisions about purchases, according to McKinsey, so distributors should add artificial intelligence tools to allow buyers to "seamlessly float from channel to channel," writes Benj Cohen, founder and CEO of Proton.ai. Omnichannel AI can also glean valuable customer insights and help improve distribution sales, Cohen writes.
December's Logistics Managers' Index reading of 54.6 was just one percentage point higher than in the previous month and remained much lower than the 76.2 high in March. The transportation utilization reading of 48.1 was the first to indicate contraction since April 2020, while transportation prices had the "sharpest rate of contraction" in LMI history at 36.9, researchers said.
Streamline team collaboration and reduce costs In the contact center, it's in the collaboration layer where work gets done. Join experts from Slack, NeuraFlash and Salesforce as they explore features that help your retail service teams provide connected personalized service at every touchpoint. Register here.
Sales managers must help their teams revamp selling methods because today's buyers often know precisely what they want to buy before ever talking to a sales rep, G2's Mike Buscemi says. Seven tactics, such as incorporating customer reviews and helping with implementation, help convince buyers to choose your product or service, Buscemi says.
Challenging economic times are forcing some employers to engage in "quiet hiring," which involves either bringing on short-term contractors or temporarily moving existing employees to new roles, says Emily Rose McRae, a Gartner researcher. Employers should tell employees why the change is necessary and how taking on a new task could benefit their career, McRae says.
The inner critic that leads us to sabotage ourselves can be silenced by challenging its assertions -- especially when it tosses up generalizations such as "You always screw up" -- and talking with trusted friends and colleagues about it, writes Dan Rockwell. "If you care for yourself, develop relationships that withstand honest conversations about inner demons," Rockwell writes.
