The Industrial Supply Association (ISA) is the trade association for the industrial maintenance, repair, operations and production (MROP) channel. ISA is the only trade association connecting all channel partners, including manufacturer reps, manufacturers and distributors, helping them stay relevant and competitive as the industry changes.
Brendan Breen, its CEO, has a proven track record in driving organizational growth and success and has played a pivotal role in shaping the future of ISA. In a recent episode of Wholesale Change, he shares insights on the challenges facing ISA’s members in 2025.
Jonathan Bein: ISA is one of the biggest distribution associations, and you have a staff that is a quarter to half the size of others. How do you pull it off?
Brendan Breen: We have eight and a half employees, myself included, and that half is a seasonal employee who handles customer service during our busy times. It’s all about switching gears and understanding exactly how to do 10 things in a day. That’s a unique skill that many associations struggle to do. A lot of them focus primarily on their convention. Our convention is important to us, and we ensure we execute. But that’s only three days out of a 365-day year. We have to focus on those other days. We have to be able to pivot. I have hands-down the best association team that exists, without fail. Every single one of them is a phenomenal contributor, and I’m the luckiest guy to have that team to support me.
Ian Heller: You have a lot of rep firms in addition to manufacturers and distributors.
Breen: That’s right. We understand that getting to market and the shifting dynamics at the end-user require technical expertise. We are working with some phenomenal rep agencies that not only have that technical expertise but are also very professionally run. This is not just a lifestyle business anymore. They are part of an active go-to-market strategy for manufacturers and distributors to provide enhanced value to end-users. I can’t say enough about the rep firms we work with. They are a great group and enhance the channel overall.
Heller: What do you think are the key trends and challenges going on in the industrial supply channel right now?
Breen: In this channel, I am seeing closer relationships becoming a trend. The relationships between manufacturers, distributors and other key individuals are critical because of the pace of change. If you have the opportunity to be transparent with your channel partner and work closer together, either through a digital bridge or just through a relationship, that has a multiplier effect for value to the end-user. It’s a great time to be a trade association because that’s what our platform does: We connect these people.
Talent is another big topic. The skills gap that we’re hearing up and down the channel, from manufacturers to end-users is real. It’s top of mind for big and small businesses, publicly traded, and family-owned, you name it. Everybody says talent keeps them up at night. Luckily, I have the right people around me. It does keep me up at night, because I want to keep every single one of them.
We have an aging workforce looking to step out and pursue their next chapter. That will leave a void of industry knowledge and product expertise. Our opportunity as an association is to provide value in that void.
Lastly, it’s hard to keep pace with digital and AI trends. It’s scary out there, and people have limited resources. They have limited time and need every next step to be the right step. You can’t afford a misstep. You guys do a good job of talking about it. The industry is having conversations with each other about it, listening to thought leaders like you and trying to figure out their next move.
Bein: We think that by 2030, companies will be 30% to 40% more efficient, and this could show up in revenue per employee gross or profit per employee. Doing more with fewer employees. Think about what this could do for pricing. If 10,000 distributors take these steps, but 490,000 don’t, what does that look like for the ones who don’t?
Breen: It’s a challenge. You need to evolve or differentiate. However, there are some distributors that carry such technical expertise and deep relationships that it’s not as easy to replace with technology. There are certain things that make a distributor’s value unquestionable. It’s the same reason why a local regional distributor with a ton of technical expertise can beat Grainger or Amazon on a deal.
There are repeatable tasks and parts of the middle of your P&L sheet that you can streamline. How do you not pay attention to that? But there’s that other piece of the business that has gone through the other ups and downs, the rise of dot-com and the war effort of the 1940s, and we navigated through it. Some pieces of our business are still the same. There will be disruptors, and we will evolve, but I don’t think the other 490,000 are gone. Those that stay must differentiate.
Bein: What does digital transformation mean for your members, large and small?
Breen: We’ve been talking about digital transformation for half a decade or more. It’s not a new topic. But there is more of a sense of urgency. Most companies, if they are honest, are behind the curve and need to do more to compete. It goes beyond setting up an ecommerce site, beyond getting your data in house, or bringing in a CRM. There are decent-sized companies operating without a CRM. There’s going to be some fallout. You have to evolve, or you’re not going to make it. It’s the same for associations; if I stand still and do the same thing ISA did in 1902, it’s not going to work. Our end-users demand more. They’re demanding a frictionless experience, what they want when they want it, and for cheaper. If you’re a manufacturer or a distributor, you have to look at this and ask how this is going to trickle down to me. And am I ready for it?
Bein: When we think of how this impacts a smaller member. Is it transform or get acquired?
Breen: I don’t think so. There’s a reason why there’s consolidation in our industry. Yes, the large are getting larger. If you look at data from Cleveland Research, they tracked this five years ago. Twenty-five percent of the channel was the top 25 distributors, and then everything else were companies of $50 million or less. Now, the top 25 is the top 35%. That’s still a massive chunk made up of smaller companies, and there has to be a reason behind that.
I don’t think they are waiting around to sell their business. There is real value in our space, real technical expertise and deep-seated knowledge of what an end-user really needs.
Bein: How are distributors responding to uncertainty over tariffs?
Breen: We all heard during the election cycle that these things were coming. But then, all of a sudden, we’re talking about U.S. and Canada in a very real way. What are my members thinking about it? What does this mean for products that rely on imports? What’s the reality around this?
We had to dig in because we weren’t getting answers from the Wall Street Journal, CNN or Fox News. We worked with the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) to get clarity right out of the White House. We spoke with several experts and a lobbyist from DC. We spoke to end-users and distributors. We looked at it from many different ways, and the reality is, nobody knows.
A survey by Cleveland Research polled different distributors about the tariffs and the results were a mixed bag. Half the people are saying they’re coming, and they’ve adjusted business accordingly. Other people are saying their business has already been adjusted by price increases from some major manufacturers. Others are saying they don’t know the long-term effects. Unequivocally, I’ve not talked to a single ISA member that is in favor of these tariffs.
Growing the U.S. economy is important and certainly growing U.S. manufacturers is important. There’s uncertainty around the long-term benefits of these tariffs and a lot of doubt about the end game. Distributors are holding tight. A lot of people are in freeze mode. Some people are using it as an opportunity to pay attention to another part of their business, to invest in technology, or invest in people and ready themselves for whatever contingency might be coming.
It’s going to be a big challenge for channel partners. I’m selfishly thrilled that we offer a platform for this kind of discussion and information share. How can we navigate this together?
Heller: Tell us a little about your upcoming conference.
Breen: We’re really excited about this conference. We are in Nashville this year from March 31 to April 2 and have more keynotes scheduled than ever before. We have phenomenal breakout sessions on the topics we discussed here today, especially tariffs, government relations and understanding the economy.
The educational component and networking are going to be first rate. And, of course, we’re going to entertain our guests. We have a new concept called the Exchange, a topic-based roundtable where we bring people together for lunch for open conversations on preselected topics that they have in common. We’ve done this at our Fall Summit, and it provided a significant amount of value. All the major manufacturers, distributors and rep agencies are registered for this conference. If I knew that 800 people in my industry were going to be in the same place, it’s where I would want to be.
