Distributors present at the Manufacturing & Materials Conference

Staff -- Industrial Distribution, 5/1/2007

Some of the industry’s largest distributors spoke to the financial community in March as part of BB&T Capital Markets Manufacturing & Materials Conference. The two-day event took place at the Grand Hyatt in New York City, and featured five of INDUSTRIAL DISTRIBUTION’s Big 50 distributors: Barnes Distribution, MSC Industrial, Fastenal, Applied Industrial Technologies and Airgas Inc.

The audience of analysts and investors heard presentations from manufacturing and distribution companies in the industrial, construction and building materials markets. Among the highlights from distributors:

• Barnes Group CFO William Denninger explained Barnes Distribution’s growth strategy, which includes continued acquisitions and sales force expansion. (Barnes Distribution is a division of Barnes Inc., which includes Barnes Aerospace and Associated Spring.) Denninger also said Barnes Distribution is focused on improving margins, hoping to raise them from mid-single digits to low double-digits in the next few years.

• MSC Industrial’s vice president of finance Shelley Boxer talked about the company’s focus on customer service and solution selling, noting that MSC has doubled its outside sales force in the last five years. He also talked about MSC’s recent growth with last year’s purchase of J&L Industrial, noting that the deal expanded MSC’s customer base considerably.

• Fastenal’s CFO Dan Florness talked about the Minnesota-based company’s focus on new store openings in North America, and its recruitment strategy of hiring part-time workers. Fastenal opened 245 stores last year, hitting the 2,000 store mark. Roughly 25 percent of Fastenal’s store-based employees are part-time, many of whom start with the company during college and eventually become full-time employees.

Other companies featured at the event included Dow Chemical, U.S. Concrete, Builders FirstSource Inc., Beacon Roofing Supply, Inc., Lincoln Electric Co., and Timken Co.