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Leaders from NAW members Motion, Specialty Building Products and Imperial Brady share how they’re preparing for 2027 amid improving demand and persistent operating pressures. Their perspectives highlight opportunities in reshoring, AI and productivity — and the execution needed to turn technology investments and acquisitions into stronger customer service and growth.
November 12, 2026
As distributors adopt AI for quoting, order entry and other workflows, they need to know exactly how vendors are using their data. This piece explains the risks of cross-customer AI training and outlines the questions...
U.S. wholesale sales jumped 2.8% in September, though an 18.8% Oil & Gas surge amplified the headline. Excluding petroleum, sales still increased about 0.8%, while inventories grew more slowly and remained lean relative to sales....
At SuiteWorld 2026, Oracle NetSuite outlined how AI agents, natural-language workflows and a more connected technology stack could reshape distributor operations. Its latest innovations target inventory management, fulfillment and ERP implementation, while raising important questions...
From supplier negotiations to difficult employee conversations, AI personas could help distributors practice before the stakes are real. This piece explores how simulated counterparts can strengthen training, preserve veteran expertise and support hiring.
Our Intelligence Brief provides a consise, synthesized eight-page briefing that extracts the biggest takeaways and themes from the articles published each month. It’s perfect for busy executives. Premium members can get our it from the...
Half of distributor respondents in the latest Baird-NAW survey reported a margin hit of at least 25 basis points after pricing and surcharge offsets. Here, we show and analyze how much transportation costs are taking...
Get our rundown of every deal we published during October, along with our updated monthly deal count and breakdown of year-to-date transactions by product category.
Longtime industry executive and thought leader John Gunderson shares observations on AI adoption, pricing, customer service and leadership from the industrial supply channel’s recent gathering in San Antonio.
As distributors face growing pressure to deploy AI across their businesses, more technology doesn’t necessarily mean more value. This piece explains why a more intentional, permission-based approach to AI — one that prioritizes trust, governance...
About 84% of distributor respondents in the latest Baird/NAW survey report an impact from political uncertainty, while manufacturers more often describe it as major. We break down the figures for distributors and manufacturers and analyze...
It consists of the quarterly results, analysis and commentary from the latest Baird-NAW Distribution Survey — conducted early October — that explored revenue performance, pricing and business expectations for the current quarter and rest-of-year. It...
It covers our updated monthly deal counts; a year-to-date breakdown of M&A by product category; the latest EBITDA trading multiples for 27 public industrial distributors; our latest M&A-led Premium articles; and our detailed recap of...
