Member Store Growth Continues to Outpace the Industry
July 11, 2016
Portland, Ore.—Johnstone Supply, Inc. celebrated the opening of its 400th location in Toms River, N.J. as part of the Kenilworth Group, one of the Cooperative’s leading Members.
True confessions here: I started my research for this article with the hopes of finding someone who was totally not into strategic planning. I hoped to find someone successful who would openly state they didn’t believe in strategic planning. I wasn’t looking for a fight.
DAYTON, Ohio — Winsupply named its 2015 Vendors of the Year at the company’s Annual Meetings and Vendor Showcase Awards Dinner held at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Kissimmee, Florida. Attendees also celebrated Winsupply’s 60th Anniversary.
From the outside, the world of distribution seems pretty easy and mundane. One Internet “expert” summarized the key to success in our business as product, pricing and promotion. I couldn’t help but laugh as I read his summary.
It’s always nice to know that little something about the person sitting across from you. And I’ve always believed that it’s far more interesting to learn about a person directly, even if it’s a snippet of a story, rather than from someone’s obituary.
Our brand of wholesale distribution has to be one of the most people-intensive business models in existence. Sure, we have warehouses, inventory, customer credit, computers and company fleets of cars, trucks and lord knows what else, but people are the driving force of our model.
I had a chance to catch up with Jeff Corken, president of Florence, Ky,.-based The Corken Steel Products Co., to capture a glimpse of what they do regarding forecasting on the wholesale side of the HVACR industry in the Midwest.
