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Tariffs on Canadian Lighting. Will it Impact Distributors?

On Wednesday the US announced increased tariffs, up to 50% on a variety of goods from Canada and the lighting industry was impacted. The tariffs are expected to be effective August 20th. Linda Longo, editor of ElectricalTrends’ sister publication US

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Lantern Helps Distributors Manage Inventory, Increase by A Turn

Last month Lantern, an AI-powered, inventory forecasting system, joined NAED. The association announced their membership a couple of weeks ago. Having met Conor Leen almost two years ago, I reached out to him for an update and to offer him

Parspec Launches Sales Management for Lighting Agents

Parspec, best known as a vital lighting quotation system used by many lighting agents / manufacturer reps and distributors has been developing its Sales Management platform to support lighting agents / reps. The company received input from 16 lighting agents

Integration Drives Tomorrow’s AI Tech Stack

At the NAED Eastern back in February I sat down with Karthik Chidambaram from DCKAP for a discussion about the industry. While a conversation, in reality Karthik was interviewing me (yes, unusual.) I’ve known Karthik and DCKAP for a number

Fueling Growth: The NAED Marketing Summit Delivers

For years the electrical industry viewed marketing as premiums (you know, T-shirts and hats), events (counter days and promotions) and flyers. Then it evolved to digital. But for leading companies, marketing has a seat at the table and strategic contributions

Was There an Elephant in the Applied AI Room?

A couple of weeks ago Mark McGready, IDEA‘s Director of Data Analytics and Solutions, attended the Applied AI for Distributors conference and while he shared Nudge with a number of people, upon reflection after the conference, he noticed an elephant

Q2 Lighting. There is a Pulse plus Acuity and Signify Share

The lighting industry continued to undergo much change in Q2. Aside from a number of small manufacturer acquisitions / mergers, lighting agents merging, and the final “implosion” of Cree Lighting, we also had LEDucation, Signify’s Capital Markets Day, Acuity’s earnings

Economic Cluster Mapping Leverages and Accelerates Sales

As manufacturers and distributors seek areas for growth as well as beginning their 2027 planning (yes, there are manufacturers looking this far ahead), Chris Sokoll from DISC shares an idea called “economic clustering” and highlights how this complementary market approach

What’s Going on with Wire?

Recently Chris Sokoll (from DISC) and I were talking about copper, which led to a discussing the wire / cable market. We all know some of the dynamics: Raw material cost fluctuations, which have resulted in an increase. Tariff dynamics

DISC Forecast Exceeds $180B for 2026. What’s Your Share?

For 40+ years the electrical distribution industry has turned to DISC for an electrical distribution-specific market forecast. Leading manufacturers, distributors and reps turn to it as a common measurement of “the distribution market”, facilitating planning based upon a common language.

Slow Lighting Market According to Pulse of Lighting and Acuity

At the end of the year, Neil Ashe, CEO of Acuity, described the 4th quarter (their first quarter) lighting business as “tepid”, and our 2025 Q4 Pulse of Lighting report affirmed, and shared a 2026 Outlook If the definition of

Rockwell and the Automation Future

The automation space is very specific, yet important. While the industrial segment (industrial MRO and OEM represents about 33% of total electrical distribution sales, according to DISC, automation products represent a significant percentage of this. Rexel’s acquisition last month got

Electra Sales Enters the Switchgear Space

Recognizing the challenges that many contractors are facing due to switchgear supply chain challenges, and that the switchgear market is changing, Electra Sales, a five location, multi-state independent electrical manufacturer rep, that is an ESOP, brought on a switchgear line

Panduit … Driven by Innovation

Progressive, growth-oriented manufacturers tell their key distributors, and their salesforce / reps that they believe in “innovation.” Some set new product introduction (NPI) goals. Some mention this to their investors / analysts as a way to explain value proposition, performance,

What’s Next for Atkore?

While Atkore is a valued supplier to many distributors, and extremely important to many manufacturer reps, even with their “multi-rep / territory” strategy, many have wondered about the company’s longer-term future. Atkore “Cleaning Up”? Over the past few years, the

Schneider- Turning Green Claims into Proof … and Revenue for Distributors

ESG … sustainability. Many publicly-held companies believe in it and promote it. Some issue lengthy reports about their ESG initiatives. Rather than “just publish,” I frequently ask “what is the benefit of this to end-customers? to distributors?” And surprisingly, 99%