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Wholesale Change: Culture as the Foundation for Growth, featuring Robyn Pollina, CEO of Palmer-Donavin
May 31 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT
Join us on May 31 when we welcome Robyn Pollina, CEO of Palmer-Donavin, to the Wholesale Change show. Robyn ascended to the CEO position in 2020 after 25 years at the building materials wholesale distributor, including serving as the company’s CFO. “I shifted from managing day-to-day tasks to establishing six growth initiatives,” she notes.
As the head of a leading distributor of building materials and an ESOP, Robyn’s job is to meet and manage the expectation of its many employee-owners while adapting the company to succeed in an evolving channel. Some long-term investments can affect short-term profitability but will pay off over time. A key part of Robyn’s job is to enroll the whole company into these strategies to ensure Palmer-Donavin’s success for many years.
Robyn views building a strong culture as fundamental to the success of the company. Her leadership team has distilled 28 “Purpose-Driven Principles” to serve the Palmer-Donavin’s mission “to deliver more and guide our everyday interactions with each other and our business partners.”
As one of a small number of women in a CEO role in distribution, Robyn serves as a great example to others who aspire to leadership roles in what has been a male-dominated industry.
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Practical Post-Pandemic Pricing for Profit
June 7 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT
Gross margin is the single most impactful driver of profit. For example, a 2% improvement in gross margin would drive higher profit than a commensurate improvement in either sales or expenses.
Margin is, of course, driven by both the ability to buy right and to price right. Even though both are important, the impact of price far out ways the impact of purchasing.
This webinar will review the key approaches to enhancing pricing performance. These include setting prices correctly from the start, reviewing pricing approaches on slow selling items, controlling salesforce pricing decisions and ensuring that supplier price increases have a positive impact.
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Wholesale Change: The State of M&A in Distribution
June 14 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT
Join us for this Wholesale Change episode with our guest Newton Sears, Managing Director at Greenhill & Co., an advisory-focused investment bank dedicated to M&A, restructurings, financings and capital raising.
Newton and his firm work with many distribution firms and publish data about M&A activity within the industry. A frequent advisor to distributors, Greenhill offers expert insight executives can use to make better decisions about acquisition opportunities, recapitalizations, valuations and much more.
In our conversation with Newton, we’ll talk about:
- The state of the M&A market in distribution
- How industrial distribution is perceived in the capital markets
- What buyers of distribution markets focus on
- What sellers should be prepared for when they consider putting their companies on the market
Whether you’re a buyer or a seller, a current or prospective investor or if you just want to know how an expert investment banker identifies what makes a distribution company great, you don’t want to miss this conversation.
Sign up below to listen live on June 14 at 9 PT/12 ET (bring your questions) or listen to the recording.
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Distribution Leader Panel: Choosing and Leveraging the Best ERP for You
June 27 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT
Join us on June 27 at 9 ET/12 PT for our panel of distribution executives. We will get their views and expertise on how you can select the right ERP system for your company – and how to leverage it once it’s live.
We’ll discuss topics to consider when selecting the right ERP, such as distributor-specific functionality, scalability, integration capabilities, ease of use, mobile access, vendor reputation and support, business intelligence and much more.
We’ll also ask our panelists for tips for leveraging a new ERP system. Topics will include:
- Planning/prioritizing the implementation and ramp-up
- Training users and driving engagement
- Migrating and cleansing data
- Planning for continuous improvement
- Managing change
- Ensuring you regularly apply updates
- How you can measure success
Don’t miss this essential panel for distributors who are considering a new ERP – or might sometime soon. Sign up below to attend live – bring your questions – or to listen to the recording.
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Industry Insights
Trending Data
How Satisfied Are Distributors with Their Core Technology?
Despite rising adoption, Distribution Strategy Group data finds that most distributors are less than satisfied with the technologies they use. For example, more than 90% of distributors have deployed an ERP, but only 54% are satisfied with their system. Three-quarters of distributors use a CRM, but only 37% are satisfied. By the end of 2023, 60% of distributors will deploy a WMS. Less than half (48%) say these tools fully satisfy them. Finding the right tools is essential. Learn more about how distributors are using core and emerging in our latest report.