| CHICAGO -- Grainger, North America's leading supplier of facilities maintenance products, announced a multi-year branch expansion program to increase its market presence in the United States. The program will begin in three metropolitan markets, Atlanta, Denver and Seattle, with larger branches and additional sales personnel. Over the next three to five years, the company will assess and reinforce local availability of products and sales coverage to increase service to customers in 25 major metropolitan markets as well as in selected secondary markets. Grainger expects to fund the first phase of the program by ongoing productivity improvements that reduce the company's overall cost structure.
In the first phase, Grainger expects to add more than 300,000 additional square feet, or approximately 50 percent more showroom and warehouse capacity. The additional inventory in these new or expanded branches should total more than $20 million; the company expects to hire close to 100 additional sales professionals and branch associates to focus on customers' needs. Plans call for capital expenditures of $25 to $30 million for the branch projects in 2004. The company expects to offset the incremental expenses of this initial phase of the program with its ongoing productivity improvement programs; without these actions, the program would negatively impact operating earnings in 2004.
"Grainger's multi-channel model is what distinguishes us from our competition," said Keyser. "No other company has as broad a product line with tens of thousands of items immediately available all across the country." He added, "It is our plan to focus on the major metropolitan areas while selectively acting on market opportunities in secondary markets as we have over the years." Keyser also noted, "We will augment our branch expansion with an aggressive sales and marketing effort targeted to capture additional market share."
Visit their website at: http://www.grainger.com
This eUpdate posting by: Steve Joyce
SOURCE: W.W. Grainger, Inc./PRNewswire-FirstCall) |
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