Last week, I wrote an article for a contractor-focused publication titled, “Are You Getting Everything Your Favorite Distributor has to Offer?” In this piece, I imparted two very important points: First, contrary to popular belief, distributors don’t produce enough profits to impact the contractor's price of materials substantially, and, more importantly, most contractors don’t get all of the value their distributor partner has to offer. Strangely, this piece led me down a winding path of thought on the future of our industry.
As I see it, our industry (suppliers, distributors and contractors) is in a state of flux. Throughout all of this change, suppliers are under pressure from new and emerging technologies. One need only look to the appliance industry to see the impact of offshore manufacturers bringing in new and unique approaches to the old American designs. The same is happening in the HVACR business and chances are, at least some of these new suppliers have no preconceived notions about the value of distribution.