One of the more interesting findings in INDUSTRIAL DISTRIBUTION's 58th Annual Survey of Distributor Operations (to be published this month) is that relationships between manufacturers and distributors seem to be improving. This is the first time we've been able to say that for many years.

In fact, distributors told us that many of their key manufacturers are working hard to solidify the relationship. About 40 percent of the nearly 800 respondents to the survey said that their suppliers are attempting to better the relationship, and predict that this will only improve in the future. At the same time, manufacturers are decreasing the number of distributors they sell through.

"Innovative manufacturers want to increase the level of partnership, but with a smaller number of distributors that are willing to fully engage as true partners," points out Mark Dancer, vice president of Pembroke Consulting, who wrote an overview of the entire study.

When asked to identify the key characteristics of a true partner, distributors listed territory protection (81 percent); new product training (80 percent); joint calls (74 percent); and lowering impediments to obtain discounts (74 percent).

Meanwhile, communication appears to be at the center of the relationship. More than half of the distributors say important suppliers already share product, inventory or other information online. Distributors aren't as eager to do so.

"Many distributors," Dancer says, "are still reticent to share information, especially customer or point of sales data, acting out of a fear of disintermediation or intimidation."

Distributors were quite vocal about why they choose not to share that type of information. Their comments ranged from, "It's none of their business," to "I've never been asked for that information," to "This is proprietary information that I've gotten exclusively."

Ironically, though distributors are telling us they want territorial protection, many of them say they are stocking competitive products from master distributors or from other distributors.

All in all, the study shows that the manufacturer-distributor relationship appears to be going in the right direction, as both sides are acknowledging that they must work together to provide solutions for their end users. And that's good news for the whole channel.