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 Copying or reprinting all or parts of this newsletter without specific permission violates Federal law! 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. Copying or reprinting all or parts of this newsletter without specific permission violates Federal law! 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. Copying or reprinting all or parts of this newsletter without specific permission violates Federal law! 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. Telephone: (913) 967-1951 Fax: (913) 514-6800 Subscriptions: (866) 505-7173 Subscription rates: Online: $595 for one subscription; $1,095 for 2-10 subscriptions; $1,895 for 11-20 subscriptions; $2,495 for 21 or more subscriptions. Print edition: $695 a year anywhere in the world, payable in U.S. dollars. Single copies: $30 each. To order single copies, call (866) 505-7173 (U.S.) or (847) 763-9504 (Outside U.S.). Electrical Marketing is published twice a month by PENTON MEDIA INC., 9800 Metcalf Ave., Overland Park, KS 66212. 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