The Electrical Industry Newsletter
February 8, 2013 • Volume 38, Number 3
People On the Move Circuit Breaker Sales Builds Documentation
in Electrical Industry Library with Federal Pacific Equipment Deal
National Electrical Manufacturers Representatives Association (NEMRA) (Portsmouth, N.H.): At last week’s NEMRA
Conference, many reps and manufacturers took on new volunteer roles with the
organization and some were honored by
Electrical Wholesaling magazine for their
industry achievements. Elected as officers
on the NEMRA Board of Directors were:
Chairman, Greg Reynolds, Flynn & Reynolds Agency, Tewksbury, Mass.; Chairman
Elect, Greg Baker, J.D. Martin Co., Dallas; Treasurer, Bill Devereaux, R/B Sales
Corp., Marion, Iowa; Secretary, NEMRA’s
Ken Hooper; and Immediate Past Chairman, Mark Gibson, Agents Midwest, Ltd.,
Wood Dale, Ill.
Elected as directors were: Scott Silvey,
General Power & Control Corp., Geismar,
La.; Tim Klinger, IPRO, Inc, Denver; Gary
Lessing, Ewing-Foley, Inc, Cupertino,
Calif.; Larry Jacob, New Century Sales,
Indianapolis, Ind.; Roger Vaught, Atkore
International, Harvey, Ill.; Cindy Doherty,
Intralec Electrical Products, Ltd., Mississauga, Ontario, Canada; Scott Osterman,
Osterman Associates, Syracuse, N.Y.; and
Joe Tumlin, Coresential, Tampa, Fla.
Elected officers on the NEMRA Manufacturers Group Executive Committee
(NMG) were: Chairman, Rob Hartford,
Prime Conduit, Cleveland; Co-Chair, Jim
Johnson, Calpipe Industries, Downey,
Calif.; and Immediate Past Chairman, Tom
Fredericks, American Polywater, Stillwater, Minn. Elected as Committee Members were Dale Sidey, Hammond Power
Continued on page 2
Inside
Construction ends 2012 up........ p. 3
Mayer moves into Houston....... p. 4
NEMRA rocks Chicago............ p. 5
NAW execs upbeat.................... p. 5
A Penton Media publication.
Publishers of Electrical Wholesaling and
EC&M magazines.
Circuit Breaker Sales Co., Inc., Gainesville, Texas, a dealer in new and used circuit
breakers, switchgear and related components, has acquired the remains of historic
breaker-maker Federal Pacific Equipment,
Inc. (FPE), Brick, N.J.
FPE is not related to Federal Pacific of
Bristol, Va., a manufacturer of switchgear
and transformers.
In addition to parts, components, and inventory, Circuit Breaker Sales also acquired
Federal Pacific’s technical and historical
libraries, a move similar to its purchase in
2007 of ITE and its documentation.
“By adding Federal Pacific Equipment’s
technical library to the ITE specification
documents we acquired in 2007, Circuit
Breaker Sales is now one of the largest providers of new, replacement and remanufactured parts for the industrial circuit breaker
industry,” said Bill Schofield, president of
Circuit Breaker Sales.
“At one point in history, Federal Pacific
was one of the largest providers of residential and industrial circuit breakers in the
United States. CBS’s growing library of
historical records, card files and drawings
will give our engineering staff the tools
they need to help customers determine
whether they need replacement parts,
repairs, remanufactured components or
retrofit upgrades to get their FPE and ITE
electrical equipment safely up and running,” Schofield added.
Schofield told Electrical Marketing
he’s in discussions with two more legacy
breaker companies to add their technical
libraries to the one CBS has built with ITE
and FPE.
The collection of FPE data files, microfiche, drawings, wiring diagrams and other
literature not only allows CBS to service
the installed base of legacy Federal Pacific
Continued on page 5
Electrical Stocks Build On Solid 2012 Gains
in Share Prices With Early Growth in 2013
With all the talk by Wall Street commentators and bloggers about the possibility that the Dow Jones Industrial
Average might start living over the vaunted
14,000-level and recent reports of several
electrical stocks hitting 52-week highs,
Electrical Marketing’s editors thought it
would be a good time to see how electrical
stocks stack up with the overall market.
We compared the stock prices since Jan. 1
and over the past 12 months of 29 publicly
held manufacturers, nine distributors of
electrical supplies, and two contractors
involved in electrical work with the Dow
Jones Index, S&P Index and NASDAQ
Composite.
These electrical companies more than
held their own over the past 12 months.
From Feb. 6, 2012, to Feb. 6 2013, as a
group these 40 stocks beat all three of the
major stock market averages by increasing
an average of 12.9%, compared to 12.2%
for the S&P 500; 9% for the NASDAQ
Composite; and 8.7% for the Dow Jones
Industrial Average. The two contractor
stocks, Emcor Group Inc. (EME) and
Quanta Services Inc. (PWR) did the best
against these industry benchmarks YTY
and were up a whopping 24.3%, electrical manufacturers were up 13.9%, and
distributor stocks lagged these indices a
bit at 6.9%.
So far this year, the stock prices of the
publicly held electrical companies and
other distributors in the chart on page 2
are tracking the indices pretty closely.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up
4.1% year-to-date, followed by the S&P
500 Index at 3.2% and the Nasdaq Composite at 1.6%. As a group, the 40 stocks
analyzed here are up 3.6% through Feb.
6, with manufacturers (+3.7%), distributors (+3.5%) and contractors (+3.1%) all
Continued on page 2
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Electrical Company Stocks Off to Solid Start in 2013
Continued from page 2
within a percentage point.
There were some clear standouts
amongst the publicly held electrical
stocks over the past year, with 16 stocks
enjoying a stock price increase of more
than 20% and seven stocks enjoying
increases of or near 30% YTY: Generac
Holdings Inc. (GNRC) (+79.5%); Federal
Signal (FSS) (+70.3%); Cree Inc. (CREE)
(+57.3%); Philips Electronics (PHG)
(+55.6%); Pentair (+36.5%); Wolesley
plc (WOS.L) (33.8%); and Hubbell Inc.
People On the Move
Continued from page 1
Solutions, Baraboo, Wis.; Gary Koetters,
Intermatic, Spring Grove, Ill.; Brad Wiandt, Madison Electric Products, Bedford
Heights, Ohio; Bob Porter, G-Strut, Canton, Ohio; Bill Marshall, Leviton, Melville,
N.Y.; Todd Spaulding, Caddy/Erico, Solon, Ohio; Mark Reinders, Eaton/Cooper,
Houston; and Tom Bisson, General Cable,
Highland Heights, Ky.
Award winners at the conference included: Edward Marinelli, president of
Electri-Flex Co., Roselle, Ill., who won the
NEMRA Thomas F. Preston Manufacturer
of the Year Award; and Don Ambrose, of
Arlington Industries, Scranton, Pa., who
was awarded NEMRA’s Regional Manager of the Year Award for the support
and leadership he offered to independent
manufacturers’ reps in his region before
recently being named as Arlington’s national sales manager. Murray Chamney,
Intralec Electrical Products, Mississaugua,
Ontario, was the first Canadian winner of
Electrical Wholesaling’s GEM Award for
Independent Manufacturers Reps, and John
Scott, Lester Sales Co., Indianapolis, Ind.,
won the GEM Rising Star Award for young
executives on the move.
Border States Electric (BSE) (Fargo,
N.D.): David Karels has joined BSE as
the corporate asset manager. Before joining BSE, Karels worked at Ulteig as the
chief business officer and Nor-Son Inc. as
the chief operating officer in Baxter, Minn.
Most recently he was the director of operations at Henry Carlson Companies in Fargo.
Staco Energy Products (Dayton, Ohio):
Jeff Hoffman has been named president
of Staco Energy Products Co., effective
immediately. Hoffman’s background
Continued on page 6
2
(HUB-B) (+29.8%).
Several of these stocks are way ahead
of the pack since the beginning of the
year, too: Cree (+27.6%); Philips Electronics (+13.24%); and Generac Holdings
(+10.61%). Two other stocks are already
up more than 10% for the year: Magnetek
Inc. (MAG) (+21.83%) and Avnet Inc.
(AVT) (+13.7%).
It’s interesting to note that one of the
newer additions to this group of fastgrowing electrical stocks is a fairly recent
addition. Those investors who got in early
with Generac, a manufacturer of backup
generators, were richly rewarded. The
company went public in Feb. 2010 at $13
per share, and with shares now selling for
around $38.9 per share, it has rewarded
early-bird investors with a 199% cumulative return to date.
Two familiar ticker symbols are no
longer on our electrical stock watch lists —
TNB and CBE. Thomas and Betts (TNB)
was acquired by ABB Inc., and Eaton Corp.
bought Cooper Industries (CBE) last year.
— Jim Lucy
Stock Performance of Publicly Traded Electrical Companies
Recent
YTD YTY Symbol
stock price % change
% change
MANUFACTURERS
ABB Ltd.
ABB
21.3
0.4
2.0
Acuity Brands Inc.
AYI
69.6
0.8
16.4
Belden Inc.
BDC
48.6
5.4
21.2
General Cable Corp.
BGC
33.7
7.5
-1.8
Coleman Cable Inc.
CCIX
10.2
7.5
-8.0
Cree Inc.
CREE
44.3
27.6
57.3
Eaton Corp.
ETN
59.1
4.7
18.6
Echelon Corp.
ELON
2.5
-13.1
-57.1
Emerson Electric Co.
EMR
57.2
4.7
10.6
Encore Wire Corp.
WIRE
33.3
5.1
16.1
FLIR Systems, Inc.
FLIR
23.7
0.9
-7.9
Federal Signal Corp.
FSS
7.9
-0.9
70.3
General Electric Co.
GE
22.4
4.8
21.5
Generac Holdings Inc.
GNRC
38.9
10.6
79.5
Hubbell Inc.
HUB-B
93.1
7.5
29.8
LSI Industries Inc.
LYTS
7.2
-3.1
4.8
Lighting Science Group Corp.
LSCG
0.68
7.0
-56.6
Littelfuse Inc.
LFUS
65.8
4.6
23.7
Magnetek Inc.
MAG
12.9
21.8
-1.1
3M Company
MMM
102.9
8.6
20.7
Nexans SA**
NEX.PA
37.4
-20.4
-19.7
Philips Electronics NV
PHG
30.8
13.2
55.6
Pentair Ltd.
PNR
50.9
1.1
36.5
Regal Beloit Corp.
RBC
77.9
8.3
27.8
Rockwell Automation Inc.
ROK
90.7
5.4
14.3
Schneider Electric SA*
SU.PA
74.2
-3.2
-14.5
Siemens
SI
104.2
-2.6
8.9
SL Industries Inc.
SLI
17.1
-7.0
10.1
Tyco International Ltd.
TYC
30.4
-0.1
24.6
DISTRIBUTORS
Anixter International Inc.
AXE
69.7
5.7
6.3
Avnet, Inc.
AVT
36.3
13.7
0.4
Fastenal Co.
FAST
49.9
4.4
6.5
Genuine Parts Co.
GPC
69.2
6.1
10.7
Houston Wire & Cable Co.
HWCC
11.6
-10.3
-19.1
MSC Industrial Direct Co. Inc.
MSM
80.5
4.5
5.4
W.W. Grainger Inc.
GWW
217.3
4.6
8.8
WESCO International Inc.
WCC
72.7
5.1
9.4
Wolseley plc**
WOS.L
46.2
-2.0
33.8
CONTRACTORS
EMCOR Group Inc.
EME
36.5
4.3
22.0
Quanta Services Inc.
PWR
28.4
1.8
26.6
MARKET INDICES
S&P 500
^GSPC
1508.8
3.2
12.2
NASDAQ Composite
^IXIC
3163.1
1.6
9.0
Dow Jones Industrial Average
^DJI
13958.2
4.1
8.7
Notes: All prices from 2/6/13; Market Cap = Total value of the issued shares, B= billion, M=million;
*Converted from Euros **Converted from British pence
Copying or reprinting all or parts of this newsletter without specific permission violates Federal law!
Market
Cap
48.81B
2.92B
2.15B
1.67B
180.99M
5.15B
20.00B
105.41M
41.50B
687.98M
3.56B
493.98M
233.91B
2.65B
5.50B
175.00M
140.54M
1.55B
41.14M
70.75B
1.44B
28.23B
10.65B
3.30B
12.83B
40.03B
88.03B
70.58M
14.21B
2.26B
4.97B
14.80B
10.73B
204.51M
5.09B
15.10B
3.18B
125.4M
2.45B
6.08B
February 8, 2013 • Electrical Marketing
Commerce Dept. Data Shows Value of New
Construction Finishes 2012 Up 7.8% YTY
The Department of Commerce recently
announced that construction spending during Dec. 2012 was estimated at a seasonally
adjusted annual rate of $885.0 billion, 0.9%
above the revised November estimate of
$876.9 billion. The December figure is 7.8%
above the Dec. 2011 estimate of $820.6
billion. The value of construction in 2012
was $850.2 billion, 9.2% above the $778.2
billion spent in 2011.
Private construction. Spending on
private construction was at a seasonally
adjusted annual rate of $614.9 billion, 2%
above the revised November estimate of
$602.9 billion. Residential construction
was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of
$308.2 billion in December, 2.2% above
the revised November estimate of $301.7
billion. Nonresidential construction was at
a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $306.7
billion in December, 1.8 % above the revised
November estimate of $301.2 billion.
The value of private construction in 2012
was $574.6 billion, 16.1% above the $49 billion spent in 2011. Residential construction
in 2012 was $276.8 billion, 16.8% above the
2011 figure of $237 billion and nonresidential construction was $297.7 billion, 15.4%
above the $258 billion in 2011.
Public construction. In December, the
estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of
public construction spending was $270.1
billion, 1.4% below the revised November
estimate. Educational construction was at
a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $65.5
billion, 0.7% below the revised November
estimate of $66 billion. Highway construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate
of $78.5 billion, 0.7% above the revised
November estimate. The value of public
construction in 2012 was $275.6 billion,
2.7% below 2011 expenditures. Educational
construction in 2012 was $67.7 billion, 3.5%
below the 2011 figure of $70.1 billion.
Value Of New Construction Put In Place — December 2012
Value of Construction Put-in-Place ($ billions, seasonally adjusted annual rate)
Total Construction
Total Private Construction
Residential (incl. improvements)
New single family
New multi-family
Lodging
Office
Commercial (incl. farm)
Health care
Educational
Religious
Amusement and recreation
Transportation
Communication
Power (incl. gas and oil)
Electric
Manufacturing
Total Public Construction
Residential
Office
Commercial
Health care
Educational
Public safety
Amusement and recreation
Transportation
Power
Highway and street
Sewage and waste disposal
Water supply
Conservation and development
Dec. ’121
Nov. ’122
Mo. % Change
Dec. ’11
YTY % Change
885.0
614.9
308.2
144.8
25.8
11.2
28.8
44.6
29.0
18.1
3.7
6.8
12.3
16.8
83.9
70.5
49.9
270.1
6.4
9.5
2.7
11.4
65.5
9.2
9.2
28.2
9.9
78.5
20.0
12.4
5.7
876.9
602.9
301.7
143.7
24.3
11.0
28.2
44.7
28.8
17.1
3.6
7.0
12.8
17.0
81.0
67.0
48.7
274.1
6.6
9.4
3.2
11.0
66.0
9.3
8.8
28.5
11.6
78.0
21.9
12.8
5.5
0.9
2.0
2.2
0.8
6.2
2.1
2.0
-0.2
0.7
6.4
0.7
-3.4
-3.7
-0.8
3.7
5.2
2.5
-1.4
-2.6
1.8
-16.5
3.9
-0.7
-0.4
4.4
-1.0
-14.9
0.7
-8.9
-3.5
3.7
820.6
534.6
249.4
112.9
16.4
9.2
23.0
41.9
29.9
15.6
4.1
7.3
11.2
17.6
73.8
62.4
50.0
286.1
7.8
12.1
3.8
11.0
70.0
10.5
9.3
24.4
10.5
82.3
23.2
12.7
6.3
7.8
15
23.6
28.3
57.4
21.2
25.2
6.6
-3.1
16.6
-10.2
-7.8
10.4
-4.5
13.7
12.9
-0.2
-5.6
-17.3
-21.4
-29.9
4.1
-6.4
-12.2
-1.6
15.6
-6.3
-4.6
-13.8
-2.9
-8.8
1–Preliminary; 2–Revised
Note: The U.S. Census department changed its construction categories beginning with its May 2003 statistics.
With the changes in the project classifications, data now presented are not directly comparable with those data previously
published in the regular-format press releases and tables. Direct comparisons can only be made at the total, total private,
total state and local, total federal, and total public levels for annual and not seasonally adjusted monthly data. For more
information, check out http://www.census.gov/const/www/c30index.html.
Electrical Marketing • February 8, 2013
Around the Industry
Wiremold uses Datalliance to help
distributors manage inventory
Datalliance, Cincinnati, said Legrand
North America has selected the Datalliance vendor managed inventory (VMI)
program for its Wiremold product line.
“Datalliance’s service model was a strong
reason for our decision; our distributor
base strongly recommended them and it
allows for long term expansion across other
Legrand businesses,” said Brian DiBella,
Wiremold VP and GM.
EMCOR subsidiary wins bid for milk
processing plant in upstate N.Y.
Shambaugh & Son, a subsidiary of
Emcor Group Inc., Norwalk, Conn., was
awarded a contract by Cayuga Milk Ingredients to act as the design/build contractor for a new manufacturing facility
in Auburn, N.Y. Shambaugh & Son will
manage the design and construction of the
110,000-square-foot evaporator and dryer,
vertically integrated manufacturing facility as well as for installation of its process
equipment and utilities. The company’s
scope of work includes all construction
management, as well as management and
performance of all architectural, civil,
structural, process, mechanical, electrical
and plumbing disciplines.
K/E rocks Detroit’s Fillmore at
50/25 anniversary event
K/E Electric Supply celebrated its 50/25
Anniversary at The Fillmore Detroit in
grand fashion on Jan. 12th. More than 500
guests attended the semi-formal event, including customers, employees and vendors.
The Caribbean-themed party, complete
with a steel drum band and acrobatics by
the Detroit Flyhouse, featured story boards
telling the K/E story with photos of founder
Wayne Kuchenmeister delivering electrical
supplies at the front of the original 1962
wood building. Rock Kuchenmeister, K/E’s
president/CEO, also awarded four 10-year
and three 20-year employee anniversary
gifts at the party.
Check out our new website
We are excited to introduce our new
platform site at www.electricalmarketing.
com. The site has undergone a complete
redesign with an even stronger package
of news, industry analysis and key market
data. Let us know what you think.
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3
Industry Events
February 12–14
2012 BICSI Winter Conference
Orlando; BICSI, 813-979-1991,
www.bicsi.org
February 29–March 2
NAED South Central Conference
Orlando; National Association of
Electrical Distributors, 314-991-9000,
www.naed.org
March 21
LEDucation 6
New York, Designers Lighting Forum
of New York (DLFNY); info@dlfny.org,
www.dlfny.com
April 18–19
Upper Midwest Electrical Expo
Minneapolis; North Central Electrical
League (NCEL), 952-854-4405,
www.ncel.org
April 23–25
A-D Electrical Supply Division
Spring Network Meeting
Phoenix; Affiliated Distributors (A-D),
314-991-9000,
www.mya-d.net
Mayer Electric Supply, Birmingham,
Ala., plans to open a location in the Houston area with the hiring of two highly respected and veteran leaders from that geographic market. Robert Fields, formerly
the president of Wholesale Electric Supply
in Houston, has joined Mayer along with
Greg Hall, most recently Wholesale Electric’s senior V.P. of sales.
“What an opportunity we have with
these two high caliber people joining the
Mayer team,” said Wes Smith, Mayer
Electric’s president, in a press release announcing the hires. “The chance to begin
our operations in Houston and neighboring
markets with guys like this is a very big
deal for us and we simply could not be
more excited.”
Before joining Wholesale in 2004
Fields spent 33 years with Crouse-Hinds
in Houston, in sales, sales management,
marketing and product development. He
also spent time as the Cooper Connection regional V.P., working with sales
teams across Cooper divisions. Fields is
a graduate of Texas A&M and completed
graduate school at Syracuse University.
Greg Hall has been in the electrical distribution industry since 1982 and spent 20
of those years with Warren Electric Supply in Houston before joining Wholesale
and now Mayer. He is a graduate of the
University of Houston.
In 2012, Mayer made its first move
into Texas with the acquisition of Mustang
Electric Supply in the Dallas-Fort Worth
area. The Mustang operation has an expansion underway that will add warehouse,
counter and office space, and has already
begun adding some of the special capabilities and services to customers that Mayer
Electric uses elsewhere in its market area.
National Association of Home Builders Says
Housing Outlook Will Improve More in 2013
At the recent International Builders’
Show in Las Vegas, David Crowe, chief
economist for the National Assocation of
Home Builders (NAHB), Washington, D.C.,
said the housing upturn that took root last
year is expected to pick up momentum in
2013, but that “headwinds” along a number of fronts could impede the pace of the
recovery.
“Nearly every measure of housing market
strength —sales, starts, prices, permits and
builder confidence— has been trending upward in recent months and we expect to see
gradual but steady growth along these lines
in 2013,” according to a summary of his
comments posted at www.nahb.com.
In particular, Crowe said house prices
are up nearly 6% on an annualized rate over
the past 10 months, and that, “This has been
a trigger for demand to return. People feel
comfortable if they buy a house that it will
appreciate, not depreciate, in value.”
He cautioned that builders continue to
face several challenges, including stubbornly tight mortgage lending conditions,
inaccurate appraisals, rising materials prices
and a declining inventory of buildable lots.
Moreover, continuing gridlock in Washington over how much more fiscal tightening
is needed to stabilize the debt-to-GDP ratio,
along with calls by some policymakers for
major changes to the mortgage interest
deduction, threaten to negatively impact
consumer confidence and future housing
demand.
The NAHB blog posting said multi-family production, which has posted a 273% gain
from its fourth quarter trough of 82,000 units
in 2009 to 306,000 units in the final quarter of
2012, is expected to reach what is considered
a normal level of production by 2015.
The single-family market, which has
the farthest to go, was running at 44% of
normal production in the fourth quarter of
2012. Single-family starts are expected to
steadily rise to 52% of what is considered a
typical market by the fourth quarter of this
year and 70% of normal by the fourth quarter of 2014. NAHB is forecasting 949,000
total housing starts in 2013, up 21.5% from
781,000 units last year. Single-family starts
are anticipated to rise 22% from 535,000 last
year to 650,000 in 2013, Crowe said. They
are expected to jump an additional 30% in
2014 to 844,000 units.
On the multi-family side, NAHB is anticipating that starts will increase 22 percent
from 246,000 units last year to 299,000 in
2013, and rise an additional 6 percent to
317,000 units in 2014.
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February 8, 2013 • Electrical Marketing
April 25–28
NAED National Leadership Summit
Washington, D.C.; National Association
of Electrical Distributors (NAED),
314-991-9000,
www.naed.org
May 5–8
AWEA Annual Conference
Chicago; American Wind Energy Association, 202-383-2500, www.awea.org
May 9–11
LightFair 2012
Las Vegas; Lightfair International, 404220-2218, info@lightfair.com,
www.lightfair.com
May 18–20
PEARL Electrical Safety,
Reliability and Sustainability
Conference & Exhibition
New Orleans; Professional Electrical
Apparatus Recyclers League, 877-2873275, email pearl@pearl1.org,
pearl1.org/annual_conference.htm
4
Mayer Electric Supply Announces Plans
and Hirings to Open Branch in Houston
NEMRA Conference in Chicago Draws Best Attendance Since 2001
Although the National Electrical
Manufacturers Representatives Association (NEMRA), Portsmouth, N.H., held
its annual meeting last week in the midst
of an Arctic cold snap in Chicago, you
wouldn’t have known the city was in the
grips of single-digit temperatures from the
buzz in the lobby, hotel bar, one-on-one
sessions and various nooks and crannies
throughout the Sheraton Towers hotel.
More than 1,700 NEMRA manufacturers and independent manufacturers’ reps
and other attendees packed the meeting’s
training seminars, general session and
social events.
Much of the industry chatter at the
meeting seemed to center on the constantly
evolving channel strategies of manufacturers in the LED and solar market segments.
While reps have had some success selling
these products, several attendees told Electrical Marketing that these two niches are
similar in that every manufacturer seems to
have a distinct market strategy, with some
going through tradition rep and distributor
channels, but many others selling direct,
through specialty companies, or banking
on web-based sales.
There were also some rumblings at the
meeting about Philips Lighting making
major changes in the independent manufacturers’ reps that sell its 20-plus lighting
fixtures lines and solid-state lighting products. Electrical Marketing is researching
these reports and plans to have an article
on them in the next issue.
NEMRA staffers said this year’s conference had several hundred more attendees
than last year’s meeting in San Diego and
that more than 1,000 attendees packed the
seminars in the event’s training program.
The seminars included sessions on using
tablet computers and other mobile technology, sales strategies, and a networking
program for smaller rep firms and manufacturers that featured panel discussions on
interviewing for lines and making investments in technology.
Ken Hooper, NEMRA’s president said
in the press release, “As outsourced sales
professionals, NEMRA members want to
stay ahead of the ever changing electrical
marketplace. The speakers and sessions we
planned represented a valuable learning
opportunity for our members. We had over
a 1,200 pre-registrants for the educational
sessions and it was great to see the rooms
filled to capacity.”
The two speakers headlining the general
session Stu Thorn, CEO of Southwire, Carrollton, Ga., and Stuart Varney of Fox Business Channel drew positive reviews. Thorn
spoke on several innovative educational
programs that Southwire has championed
in Carroll County, Georgia, including 12 for
Life, which places at-risk students in real
jobs at Southwire, allowing them to earn
wages while earning credit toward a diploma. Students attend class in a traditional
setting for part of the day and work a fourhour shift in the plant for the remainder.
One in three students starting first grade in
a Carroll County classroom this fall will not
graduate, and the program strives to instill
in students the belief that if they complete
a full 12 years of education, they will have
better lives. Thorn encouraged all attendees
to support their communities and develop
similar programs using the effective model
they have created.
Next year’s meeting, the 44th NEMRA
Annual Conference, will be held at the
Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Atlanta, Feb.
5-8, 2014.
NAW Executive Summit Finds Distributors Feeling Optimistic
Wholesale distributors from every business line, and by extension business owners
and executives from all walks of life, have a
responsibility to continue growing profits,
for the good of the nation. That was the
core message delivered by economist Alan
Beaulieu, president of ITR Economics, last
week at the annual Executive Summit held
by the National Association of WholesalerDistributors (NAW), Washington, D.C.
Beaulieu brought a cautiously optimistic
assessment of the overall economy, forecasting expansion through 2013, though
cooling toward the end of the year and a
small step back in 2014. He said executives
should be investing in their businesses this
year and locking in low interest rates before
a rise in inflation pushes rates back up in a
few years. Beaulieu expects to see global
economic recovery, especially continued
demand from China, pushing copper prices
upward as well.
The format of presentations throughout
the summit meeting provided an effective
mix of theory and practice as consultants
and service providers gave their overviews
Electrical Marketing • February 8, 2013
of industry trends and operating practices,
then turned the mic over to a high-profile
distributor who had put those ideas to work.
For example, Patrick “Lips” Houlahan, a
former Marine Corps fighter pilot and “Top
Gun” instructor, walked attendees through
the ways his Afterburner Inc. consulting
firm applies combat training practices to improve business execution. John Mansfield,
vice president of business development
for Graybar, St. Louis, followed with an
account of how his team has applied Afterburner’s plan-brief-execute-debrief system
to improve the level of sales presentations
to key customers, which led to higher win
rates on national accounts.
On the whole, the distribution executives
at the meeting reported that business was
fairly strong and they expected a good year.
Next year’s NAW Executive Summit
will be Jan. 28-30, 2014, again in Washington, D.C.
Circuit Breaker Sales Buys Federal Pacific Equipment
Continued from page 1
equipment, it opens a door to potentially
manufacture new replacements for products
such as FPE’s QMQB panelboard switches,
of which Schofield estimates there are
900,000 still in use in Manhattan alone.
“With these documents and the knowledge we have that we didn’t have 30 years
ago, in terms of lubrication, insulation, we
can actually make some of this stuff better
than it came out originally,” he said.
Details of the acquisition were not
disclosed. Privately owned CBS did say it
plans to move the equipment from FPE’s
New Jersey facility to Group CBS’ Matthews, N.C., facility, and then close FPE’s
N.J., offices. John Cifrodella, former owner
of Federal Pacific Equipment, will continue
to serve as a consultant to CBS.
Circuit Breaker Sales is a bit of an
anomaly in the electrical surplus market.
An ISO 9001-certified member company of
Group CBS, Inc., the company specializes
in the sale and service of low- and mediumvoltage circuit breakers and other electrical
power distribution equipment.
Copying or reprinting all or parts of this newsletter without specific permission violates Federal law!
5
People
Continued from page 2
includes various positions in sales, marketing and executive management at
Fortune 500 companies including United
Technologies, Emerson Electric, Berkshire
Hathaway and his most recent role within
Illinois Tool Works (ITW). Hoffman earned
his B.S. in business from Bowling Green
State University and his MBA from the
University of Toledo.
Capital Electric Supply/CED GreenTech
Arizona (Tempe, Ariz.): Capital Electric
Supply/CED GreenTech Arizona, a division of Consolidated Electrical Distributors (CED), has named Steve Mann as
its branch manager. Mann will oversee the
company’s solar business Arizona, as well
as the electrical-wholesale portion of the
business that focuses on the Phoenix metropolitan market. He joins Capital Electric
Supply/CED GreenTech from GE Lighting, where he served as sales development
manager-LED Lighting. He also worked
for Thomas & Betts, Acme Electric, Cooper Industries, and Legrand. Mann holds a
bachelor’s in business administration from
Northern Arizona University and a Master’s
degree from University of Phoenix.
Venture Lighting International (Solon,
Ohio): Tina Hendrix, LC has joined the
company as West Coast regional sales manager. In her most recent position, Hendrix
was a joint employee of Wesco Distribution
and Philips Lighting serving three Southern
California branch locations and calling on
several vertical markets. She received her
B.A. in public administration from San
Diego State University.
Dakota Sales Group (DSG) (Fargo,
N.D.): Clark Marshall is now branch
manager for DSG’s St. Paul, Minn., location, which primarily serves the electrical,
plumbing and HVAC/R industries. He
takes over this position from Dan Miller,
who was appointed DSG’s chief operating officer in 2012. Marshall has more
than 30 years of experience in the trades
industry. Before joining DSG, he served as
vice president of sales and sales manager
for two different electronics companies.
Marshall is a graduate of Moorhead State
University.
In other news at DSG, Todd Eber has accepted the position of East region manager.
In this newly created role, Eber will oversee
the management and sales staff at DSG in
St. Paul, and at all five W.A. Roosevelt loca6
tions in Wisconsin. He will work out of La
Crosse, Wis. Before becoming DSGs east
region manager, Eber most recently served
as the president of W.A. Roosevelt, which
became part of DSG in Jan. 2012.
Burndy (Manchester, N.H.): Stewart
Gale was promoted to key account manager
within the company’s U.S. sales organization. He joined Burndy in Dec. 2011 as a
senior product manager. Prior to joining
Burndy, Gale owned and operating Force 9
Consulting, a management consulting firm.
He was also V.P. of marketing and business
development for Affiliated Distributors
and held a number of management positions with New Hampshire’s Rockingham
Electric Supply.
Mitsubishi Electric (Warrendale, Pa.):
Mike Boyd has joined the company’s
Power Products Uninterruptible Power
Supplies (UPS) division as Central regional
sales manager, reporting to Jim Hughes,
national sales manager. Boyd has a B.S. degree in physical science/general engineering degree from the U.S. Naval Academy
and spent five years leading a division of
40 enlisted personnel in the U.S. Navy as
a communications officer.
Service Wire Co. (Culloden, W.Va.):
The company’s Houston sales office has
hired Cameron Crooks as a salesperson
to service Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas,
Mexico, western Missouri, and parts of
Houston. He previously worked for a government contractor selling industrial and
damage control supplies to the U.S. military in Virginia Beach, Va. In other news
at Service Wire, Ray Langdon joined the
company as controller in the Culloden office. He graduated from Marshall University with a B.S in accounting and Liberty
University with a M.S. in accounting.
National Association of WholesalerDistributors (NAW) (Washington, D.C.):
NAW members elected Patrick Larmon,
president and CEO of Bunzl Distribution
USA Inc., St. Louis, as chairman of its
board of directors at its recent conference.
He succeeds Mark Kramer of Laird Plastics, Boca Raton, Fla. Other 2013 officers
include: Dan M. Blaylock, Adams-Burch
Inc., Landover, Md., as chairman-elect;
Manuel Perez de la Mesa, Poolcorp,
Covington, La., first vice chairman;
Richard Schwartz, WinWholesale Inc.,
Dayton, Ohio, second vice chairman; and
John Tracy, Dot Foods Inc., Chesterfield,
Mo., secretary. Also on the NAW board
are treasurer and chairman of the subcommittee on budget and finance, Robert
Taylor of Do it Best Corp.; chairman of
the NAW Association Executives Council
(AEC), Tim Buche of the Motorcycle
Industry Council; chairman-elect of the
AEC, Christopher Jahn of the National
Association of Chemical Distributors; and
past chairman of the AEC, Mark Allen of
the International Foodservice Distributors
Association.
Copying or reprinting all or parts of this newsletter without specific permission violates Federal law!
February 8, 2013 • Electrical Marketing
Obituary
Brian Blanchette, a field sales engineer with Ideal Industries Inc., Sycamore,
Ill., passed away on Jan. 16. He worked for
Ideal at the position since 2001. Blanchard
was an expert and speaker on electrical testing, and the author of a number of technical articles that appeared in leading trade
journals. His obituary in Connecticut’s The
Day newspaper said he passed away while
on a business trip in Virginia.
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