The Fluid Power Distributors Assn. has approved a recommendation from the Distribution Technology Committee to endorse the Product & Price Information Format standard for electronic transmission of manufacturer price and product updates. The association plans to announce the endorsement at its Fall Meeting this November in Chicago.

The standard seeks to establish an industry-wide system for communicating price updates to channel partners, thereby creating more efficiency in channel communications.

Developed by the Power Transmission Distributors Assn. and the Bearing Specialists Assn., PPIF was designed to supersede both ANSI pricing formats and vendor-customized reporting programs, and can be easily installed and used by manufacturers, distributors and OEMs. Its format eliminates the need for significant software expenditure by users, and is transmitted via mail, e-mail or the Internet.

As part of the endorsement announcement, FPDA will be providing information to members on how to implement the standard to maximize efficiency and improve profitability, and will share “case studies” from industry firms who are currently implementing and piloting the program.

For more information, visit www.fpda.org.

Year-to-date sales in the power transmission/motion control industry kept up a steady pace in July, but business confidence among U.S. distributors in the PT/MC industry fell during the month, according to the July Market Outlook Report from the Power Transmission Distributors Assn.

The report shows that U.S. distributors' sales of PT/MC products rose 10.8 percent through July, as compared to January through July sales a year ago. Sales dropped 12.8 percent compared to June, and were up 9.6 percent as compared to July 2005.

The confidence level of U.S. distributors fell to 6.3 from 7.7 in June on a 10-point scale.

Canadian distributors' year-to-date sales grew 9.5 percent as compared to sales for January through July 2005, according to the report. Sales dropped 15.2 percent compared to June, and were up 7 percent as compared to July 2005.

Canadian distributors' confidence level fell to 6 from 7.5 .

On the manufacturer side, year-to-date sales were up 9.2 percent in July compared to the same period last year. Again, sales were down as compared to June—12.3 percent—but up more than 13 percent compared to July 2005.

The confidence level among U.S. manufacturers held steady at 5.6, according to PTDA.

Canadian manufacturers' year-to-date sales of PT/MC products rose 2 percent as compared to January through July 2005. Sales declined 11.5 percent over the previous month, however, and decreased 0.6 percent as compared to July 2005.

Canadian manufacturers' confidence level rose to 5.4 from 5.2.

For more information, visit www.ptda.org.

The National Fastener Distributors Assn.'s board of directors has approved John Hausoul as the association's new executive vice president. Hausoul brings more than 10 years of management experience with national trade associations to NFDA.

Prior to joining NFDA, Hausoul was executive director of the Rigid Plastic Packaging Institute, which he lead through an industry recession while retaining and growing its membership. He also has worked for the Society of the Plastics Industry, the American Chemistry Council and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

For more information, visit www.nfda-fastener.org.

Greg Drouillard of Target Building Materials in Windsor, Ontario, was named the new vice president of the Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Assn. Drouillard replaces Brad Brady, formerly of Western Fasteners, who resigned his STAFDA post. Western Fasteners was sold to White Cap Industries, a division of Home Depot Supply, over the summer.