Exact Macola is moving its management offices and North American sales operations from its Marion, Ohio headquarters to Boston, Ma. Macola purchased the Boston-area office and training facility of its business partner, The Kent Group. This is also the base of operations for vice president of North American sales Jim Kent.

Airgas, Inc. sold two of its nitrous oxide plants to Air Liquide. Since its acquisition of Puritan-Bennett in January 2000, Airgas had six nitrous oxide plants. This brought the company under scrutiny by the Federal Trade Commission , which pressured Airgas to divest some capacity.

Industrial Holdings, Inc. completed the sale of three of the four subsidiaries that comprise its Engineered Products Group. The company sold the assets of American Rivet Co., Inc., Ideal Products and Orbitform. The company stated that the divestitures were in anticipation of a merger with T-3 Energy Services.

Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp. plans to open a new Greenwood, Miss., production facility as part of a long-term rationalization and restructuring strategy. President Dan Perry said this will enable centralization of component and assembly processes as well as reduce production and logistics costs.

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Applied Industrial Technologies acquired Baleros Industriales S.A. de C.V. ... Brighton-Best Socket Screw Mfg. Inc. acquired the assets of Panafast L.C., an affiliate of Pawtucket Screw ... Smith International acquired a majority interest in United Engineering Services LLC ... SunSource Technology Services became an independent entity from SunSource/ Allied Capital through a leveraged buyout by STS management ... Precision Industries acquired Sisco Inc. ... Airgas, Inc. acquired seven gas distribution locations from Air Liquide America Corp. ... Barnes Group, Inc. acquired certain assets of Forward Industries, L.L.C. ... Ingersoll-Rand Co. acquired full ownership of Nadella S.A.

Leviton received the Affiliated Distributors 2001 Excellence in Marketing Award ... Business First magazine named Mosier Fluid Power of Kentucky as one of this year's "Fast Fifty" ... Ergodyne was awarded the Telly for its video, Taking Care Of Your Back ... 3TEX, Inc. received a Tibbetts Award from the Small Business Administration ... Masco Corp. honored W.W. Grainger, Dow Chemical, Stiles Machinery and Temple-Inland Forest Products Corp. as winners of its Masco Supplier Team Award Recognition 2000 Program.

Send Update information to associate editor Richard Trombly, 275 Washington St., Newton, Mass., 02458; call (617) 558-4289; fax to (617) 558-4327; or e-mail rtrombly@cahners.com.

Mort Harris, president of Minnesota Industrial Tools , will be gearing up to lead the Industrial Distribution Assn. a year earlier than planned. Harris, who is now treasurer, will be named president during the group's Spring Convention in Denver, skipping over I.D.A. vice president Jim Beckstein of Mill Supplies Inc . Beckstein is the 2002 president of the Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Assn., so the change was made to avoid his overlapping presidencies. Beckstein will serve one more year as I.D.A. vice president, becoming president in 2003.

The Thomas A. Read Center for Distribution Research and Education is offering the 2002 Certificate in Distribution Management program. Held at Texas A&M University, the program offers five one-week modules exploring various aspects of the industry. For information, visit http://readcenter.tamu.edu/cdm.html.

Ron Cory retired from INTEGRA Integrated Procurement Systems in May 2001 but stayed on through November to offer his guidance in restructuring the organization. His history with the company goes back to the former Ross-Willoughby era.