Mayer Honors Its People
“Circle of Excellence” award winners—company associates—were recently honored by Mayer Electric Supply, Birmingham, Ala. According to Mayer: “Nominations in each category included write-ups explaining how each nominee demonstrated truly outstanding behavior and supported Mayer’s mission, vision, values, and goals.”
Team awards went to:
- Outstanding Community Service—Richmond branch
- Award for Team Excellence—Nashville branch team
Individual winners included:
- Mike Futrell of Wilmington/Fayetteville—Collat Leadership Award
- Karen Smith of corporate in Birmingham—Service Excellence in Administration
- Larry Gunn of the Birmingham lighting showroom—Service Excellence in Operations
- Neal Daniels, also of Birmingham—Inside Sales
- Jonathon Bopp of Mobile—Outside Sales
Super Bowl Tickets Winner
John Fossett of Rumsey Electric, Conshohocken, Pa., won the Grand Prize in the Omni Cable Fantasy Football Promotion (a promo limited to A-D distributors).
The top 25 participants were entered into a drawing, with the grand prize consisting of hotel accommodations in Dallas, $800 in travel cash—and two tickets for the Super Bowl, to be held Feb. 6.
It looks as if John won’t be able to fold these into his wallet!
BlueVolt Awards for A-D Members
BlueVolt, an online training provider, recently announced winners of the Knowledge@Noon Program, created last year for A-D.
Included among the BlueVolt program winners (from among A-D distributors) was Border States Electric (BSE), Fargo, N.D.—winner in the Industrial Affiliate category. Basking in the award’s glow, from left: Mark Higgins, an A-D vice president; Keith Holland, BSE’s director of supply chain services; Todd Kadry, marketing manager for BSE; and Kim Wanamaker, director of marketing for A-D.
Winners in the Electrical division (United States and Canada) were:
- Employee: John Ranauro of Fromm Electric Supply, Reading, Pa.
- Distributor: Van Meter Industrial, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
- Supplier: Philips
Foreign Electrical News
Acquisition in Sweden—Addtech Energy & Equipment said in December that it had agreed to acquire A. Wendler AB. Wendler sells material for electrical installations; it will be added to the Energy Supply unit of Addtech. Wendler’s annual revenue is given as $5.77 million.
Australia-NZ acquisition—Fletcher Building (Australia) has, according to a mid-December report from New Zealand Press Association, made “a hostile bid for New Zealand’s leading trade-related wholesale merchant for plumbing, pipeline, electrical, and safety products”—Crane Group (which was founded in 1867).
And: A Jan. 7 update on DailyTelegraph.com.au noted that: (1) Fletcher acquired 14.9% of Crane’s stock before making the offer, (2) the offer is conditional on Fletcher obtaining 90% of outstanding shares, and (3) Crane’s board of directors has rejected the offer.
According to the Dec. 15 report, there is a New Zealand unit, Crane Distribution New Zealand, which includes Mico Plumbing and Pipelines, MasterTrade—“and Corys, an electrical supply business.”
On the offer’s rejection: A Dec. 21 Sydney Morning Herald report indicated the Crane board has said “no”—but not “Hell, no!” The actual wording: “The offer does not take into account the substantial synergies expected to be available to Fletcher Building as a result of the acquisition.”
Canadian news
- Acklands-Grainger—this unit of Grainger acquired the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick industrial products business of Wolseley. Price: Face down. Sales of the acquired operations apparently are around $14 million (Canadian).
- Recall at The Home Depot—according to Home Channel News, THD Canada did a voluntary recall on Nov. 19 of “all holiday LED light strings” sold between Oct. 1 and Nov. 18.
- Transcat/ACA TMetrix—Transcat, a distributor of test equipment and more, based in Rochester, N.Y., has acquired ACA TMetrix, which calibrates and repairs test equipment from a location near Toronto.
Holiday lighting/New Zealand—Energy Safety, a part of the New Zealand Ministry of Development, fined two online sellers for “selling dangerous [Christmas] lights,” according to a Nov. 25 New Zealand Press Association filing. The agency said that “issuing instant fines [is] a way to encourage people to sell safe goods,” as it previously warned the two companies “with little change in the number of noncompliant goods listed online.”
Irish distributor’s 2009 loss—an Oct. 28 item in the Independent (www.independent.ie) of Ireland included this: “Olive Holdings…owned by the U.S.-based Colburn family, posted [an $8.6 million] loss in 2009 as it struggled with the downturn…[sales in that year] fell more than 12% to [roughly $50 million).”
Also: “The company is behind Dundalk-based Eastern Electrical [formerly owned by Hagemeyer], as well as EWL Electric, Irwin Electrical, and Edmundson Electrical.”
Lighting showroom/UK—Huddersfield Electrical Merchants planned to open a new lighting showroom (with LED lighting as well as everything else) on Jan. 19, according to a short story in the Huddersfield Daily Examiner. The company has been in business since June 2001.
Lighting showroom/Oman—Al Hassan Electricals recently opened a new showroom at Buraimi, according to the Times of Oman (Dec. 14). According to the article, Al Hassan was opened as a small retailer in 1975 and “has grown to be one of the largest distributors of electrical equipment, lighting products” and more in Oman.
Middle East distributor/Eaton—from an Nov. 14 Al-Bawaba item: “ALFalak Electronic Equipment & Supplies…was rewarded with six major awards ahead of 17 other international distributors during the recently concluded Eaton VIP Prague event. From Ahmed Ashadawi, president/CEO of the company: “ALFalak has been instrumental in Eaton’s success story in the Middle East, as we have achieved a steady year-on-year growth rate that has eclipsed those of other regional markets.”
Online electrical distributor/UK—SunnyElectricals.com (of Walsal) issued a December release noting that it sold LED lamps, fire-rated downlights, burglar alarms, ceiling pull switches, PIR switches, and more.
Price reduction/UK—the online store for Newey & Eyre, according to an Oct. 20 release, cut prices “on more than 200 top-selling lines.” The delivery charge was reduced for online buyers, too, to about $6.60.
Rexel news from outside the United States—
- Australia—TTnewscom.au reported Nov. 10 that Rexel Australia “plans to embark on an IT transformation project.” Cost: Roughly $12 million over two years. The article said the distributor has 186 branches in Australia.
- Department de la Seine-Maritime—according to a Nov. 24 item, Rexel France got one of two contracts allocated by the Seine-Maritime government “for lamps and light fittings supply.”
Wilts Wholesale/UK—items good and bad:
- From Swindon-Business.net: The company, with 600-plus employees, recently honored Paul Clark, national sales coordinator, and Martin Wicheard, branch manager, Chippenham, for 25 years of service.
- From the Wiltshire Times: According to a Dec. 10 item, “all 57 employees based at Wilts Wholesale Electrical distribution centre [in Trowbridge] have been placed at risk of redundancy.” Employees were told their jobs were at risk on Dec. 7; a company spokesperson told the newspaper that perhaps 26 would lose their jobs.
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