Bill Bootz, owner of Houston-based industrial PVF master distributor Team Alloys, didn’t know much about the business when he first started as an outside salesman back in the 1980s. “My first sales call to SMS of Texas was on Sept. 18, 1989,” he recalls in vivid detail. “They told me my price was higher than domestic. I said, ‘What’s domestic?’ I knew absolutely nothing about the business — completely zero.”

Trends and forecasts always are frequent topics of discussion in the PHCP/PVF industry. That definitely holds true for the master distribution end of the equation. A group of master distribution executives recently spoke with Supply House Times on a variety of topics related to their companies’ roles in the industry.

One of the main highlights of Evolve ’13, HARDI’s annual conference held at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge in Phoenix late last year, was the presentation of results from the Demand Qualification Project, a landmark research project launched in an effort to better understand distributors’ roles in the demand creation process.

Business is starting to heat up in 2014.

It’s like the sign in certain bars announcing, “Free Beer Tomorrow.” Almost as whimsically, economists keep predicting a strong recovery in the last half of the coming year.

Plumbing vendor and manufacturer news.

Fort Worth, Texas-based Morrison Supply recently was named Associate of the Year by the Texas Association of Builders.

Deacon Industrial Supply recently hosted more than 400 customers and suppliers at its 50th anniversary customer appreciation celebration in Valley Forge, Pa. Deacon’s 50-year timeline exhibit was displayed by decade for all guests to interact with and walk through.

Three years ago, we presented a proposal for distributor research on the trends and usage of vendor rebates.  

Wholesalers Association of the North East will host its Executive Leadership Conference June 11-13, 2014 at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge overlooking Boston.