1. How would you describe
the markets we sell into?
Turtle & Hughes sells into three large markets. These
markets comprise:
- Electrical Distributor
- Industrial Supply
- Export
2. What is the electrical distributor market?
The Electrical Distributor market is made up of companies
that represent manufacturers of electrical products. General
Electric, Siemans, and Phillips are examples of electrical
equipment manufacturers. Electrical distributors
don't manufacture products, they act as
the electrical equipment manufacturer's agent or sales
arm. This arrangement between manufacturer and seller has
formed the basis for the electrical distributor market
for over one hundred years.
Electrical wholesaling/distributing industry sales are estimated at $67
billion. The largest player in the market, Graybar Electric,
has
annual sales of $3.3 billion, or about
5% of the entire market, which gives you an idea of the
fragmented nature of the industry. By fragmented, we mean
that there is no one company that dominates the market.
Hundreds of electrical distributors comprise the electrical
distributors market, though industry consolidation has
reduced this figure dramatically in the last ten years.
Competitors in this market include General Electric Supply Company,
WESCO, Consolidated Electric Supply Company, and various
regional electrical wholesaling chains. Two multinational
French companies, Rexel and Sonepar, are making major inroads.
In 2002, Turtle & Hughes
ranked 26th in size in the U.S. electrical wholesaling
industry, according to
Electrical Wholesaling magazine.
To read more about the electrical distributor market, go
to the National Association
of Electrical Distributors
or to the Electrical
Distributor Magazine (TED) Web sites.
3. What is the
Industrial Supply market?
The Industrial Supply market is huge. It is estimated by
Purchasing Magazine to be about $1 trillion — give or
take a $ billion or so. The market comprises 15,000 manufacturers
of industrial
goods that produce on the order of 10 million
SKUs (stock keeping units). These manufacturers channel
their products through more than 100,000 distributors,
90% of whom are small companies with annual revenues
of $10 million or less. The top 100 distributors, to which
Turtle & Hughes belongs, accounts for a piddling 8% of
the total market. This description forms the very picture
of a fragmented market, where no one company dominates
as Pepsi and Coca Cola do in theirs.
Industrial supply market distributors sell a broad range
of MRO products, such as mill supplies, pipe,
valves, fittings, bearings, and chemicals.
W. W. Grainger
is the largest distributor in the market with sales of
$5 billion. Other major players are Fairmont Supply, Kennemetal,
MSC
Supply, Sun
Distributors, and Cameron & Barkley.
4. What is the
Export market?
The Export market represents about 11% of the
sales that Turtle & Hughes generates each year. Operating
as the Turtle & Hughes
International Corporation (a foreign sales corporation),
the export company consolidates shipments in its
warehouses and uses an export
freight forwarders to arrange overseas transportation.
T & H maintains blanket export contracts with several
domestic and foreign oil companies.
Back to top
|
