AED Forum to Examine the Future of Independent Distribution

June 3, 2002
The Associated Equipment Distributors next executive forum will address the future of independent distribution with a focus on the strategies equipment
The Associated Equipment Distributors next executive forum will address the future of independent distribution with a focus on the strategies equipment dealers must employ if they're to increase their profitability.

"Such market factors as consolidation, intensifying competition from new players and the online marketing of machinery and product support have made holding on to customers and creating decent profit margins a near-impossible task," said an AED official. "The result is that every year dealers accept a little less on each transaction and on their return on investment as a whole, a long-term recipe for disaster. The dynamic has been particularly hard on smaller dealerships that lack the resources to compete against larger, better-financed companies."

While the independent distribution system isn't going away - customers still want and need the valued-added services only a dealer can provide –AED members must recognize that traditional business methods will no longer generate acceptable margins in a redefined marketplace. The forum will examine the business models used by comparable industrial distributors, showing how they are capturing profits that are eluding equipment dealers.

This will be the fourth annual day-and-a-half long AED Executive Forum and will be held Sept. 12-13 in Rosemont, Ill., near O'Hare International Airport. While the complete schedule of speakers and topics has yet to be finalized, programming is being designed to examine new business strategies and models that can enable distributors to provide critical services to their customers while still realizing acceptable levels of profit for the dealerships.

You can obtain more information about the event and register online at www.aednet.org/execforum.