Operations

Lessons From the Top: Leading Distributors Open Their Playbooks

CEOs from leading distributors Grainger, Fastenal, Applied, MSC and Motion reveal secrets to their success during a challenging third quarter.

November 3, 2021

The third quarter brought a new host of headwinds, even for leading distributors. Companies still dealing with the pandemic suddenly found themselves facing labor shortage, inflation and supply chain crises.
The latest round of earnings reports showed that leading distributors overcame the ongoing challenges to post double-digit revenue growth.
Executives at Grainger, Fastenal, Applied, MSC and Motion opened their playbooks, so to speak, offering others a glimpse of how they might proceed.

In every quarter since COVID-19 hit in the spring of 2020, publicly traded distributors have been…

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