Articles
Brands Are Never
Private
Bill Wade
While preparing for a
symposium on national brands and private label products (PLP), an
interesting thought occurred… Calling things private label or private
brand is dumb.
Diesel Prices Are Due
to An Oil Price Bubble
Bill Wade
Oil prices climbed to
their highest level ever, reaching over $118 per barrel this week.
Truckers are feeling this price spike in their saddle tanks, with diesel
breaking the $4.00 barrier. An analysis by Goldman Sachs even suggested
that oil prices might soar to $200 per barrel! Would diesel continue its
historic rise?
Heavy Truck Technology- A
Sure Thing Prediction: An Attempt to Clear Away the Oil/Energy Fog
Bill Wade
While I don’t think the Robber Barons of
OPEC will be any more effective at price fixing over time than any other
cartel historically has been (they all fall prey to human psychology), I
do think that there is a long term concern.
Ten
Years After.. And a 20/20 (or 2017) View of the Future
Bill Wade
Business cycles are funny things... some just appear
(usually recognizable only after the fact) and patterns emerge. An interesting
pattern in the heavy parts business seems to revolve around a ten year cycle of
milestones beginning in 1967.
Companies Seek Advantages
Provided By E-Learning
Kelly Holliday
Online training is quickly becoming the
most efficient way to educate employees in almost every line of work. In
a recent study conducted by eLearning Guild, asynchronous training
courses taken online has become the second most popular approach to
learning and training for small businesses, after print-based materials.
'China Syndrome' is
Not a Key Issue in HD Truck Parts
Kelly Holliday
The concerns over
Chinese quality that have been voiced after recent consumer product
recalls does not deter heavy duty distributors and fleet customers from
purchasing China-made products, according to a recent survey conducted
by Wade&Partners.
Third Party Logistics:
How to Avoid a Service Disaster Kelly Holliday
and Thomas Torcomian
A
third party logistics provider (3PL) can be a great ally for heavy duty
truck and automotive components manufacturers. Outsourced services now
may include transportation, warehouse management, inventory replacement
and order fulfillment.
Global Trends for Private Label Products (PLP) And Aftermarket
Implications
Bill Wade
Private label has
become an especially hot topic in the automotive and heavy duty
distribution businesses. Bruce Merrifield and Bill Wade are working on a
joint project in this area, with an announcement of the results coming
soon.
Consolidation
Realities... A Guide Through the Minefields of Building Companies Thru
Acquisition
Bill Wade
The basic premise
couldn’t be any simpler. Take a highly fragmented industry facing
technological change, customer upheaval or chronic financing
difficulties. Add in a few well-healed foreign firms or (worse) a couple
of previously unknown competitors from “outside the business”.
Dollars Off or Discount Percent
Bill Wade
Three highly respected
professors from Miami of Ohio and Indiana University have just released
studies of the ongoing effects of price cutting on future price
expectations... the dreaded “Shadow Effect” that restricts the
ability to rebuild price levels after a promotion (or sales panic).
Tires,
Toothpaste and Truck Parts... Not Exactly Sam's Choice
Bill Wade
First, know that I
don’t have an ‘I-told-you-so’ bone in my body. But the November, 2004
issue of this magazine carried a column detailing concerns with China as
the end all solution for supposedly price sensitive heavy truck parts.
Turning Point
Bill Wade
This month marks forty
years since Bud Reese and Jim Moss got together to form the Council of
Fleet Specialists. That event was a watershed because it was the first
formal acknowledgment of the unique business problems and opportunities
shared by independents in the heavy duty field.
Is There Something
Freaky About Heavy Duty Economics?
Bill Wade
Economics is often derisively referred to as
the “dismal science,” perhaps deservedly so. There is not much about the
Laffer Curve or Liquidity Preference Theory that makes you want to run
out and buy an Econ text for a little summer reading.
It
Is Not Necessarily the Miner Who Finds the Gold
Bill Wade
Some of the most interesting stock market and private
equity activity recently has been centered on a few of our distribution
brethren, like Ferguson, Airgas, Activant, Barnes Group, Lawson or even
Albertsons … not a notable China link among them.
Hoshin Planning for the Rest of Us (Everybody Needs a Compass)
Craig Fry
Here at Wade&Partners, we were writing a textbook recently on Lean
Manufacturing for Distributors and when it came to the chapter on Hoshin
Planning, we had one of those epiphanous moments that ... well ... just
don't come along often enough.
Customers (Not
Competitors Nor Technology) Are the Real Forces
of Change
Bill Wade
The preference of buyer individuals, not external
technology forces or competitive (onshore or offshore) tactics that will
determine your future success. DUH! We knew that… kinda. What we may not have
considered are the components of consumer behavior that can be actionable
within our marketing strategies now.
Size May Not Matter After All
Bill Wade
The bottom 90% + of heavy duty distributors in most mature markets
could make better returns by liquidating and investing in municipal
bonds, because they are selling commodity products and undifferentiated,
“good service” on a last-look, meet-the-price basis.
Let's face it. This is a post-bubble economy. So what's a distributor
to do? Learn some very enlightening management concepts in this insightful
article co-authored by Bill Wade and Bruce Merrifield.
Aside from supplier-subsidized product training
for the sales staff, most heavy-duty distributors “can’t afford”
systematic education for their employees. Or at least, that’s what they
believe.
This is astonishing. The bottom 90% of HD
distributors is probably making about one-sixth the pre-tax ROI of the top
10 percent. These 90% undoubtedly are working hard, but with flawed, unspoken success
assumptions that make them undifferentiated price-takers.
|
