One of the highlights of the annual meeting of the North American Association of Floor Covering Distributors is the networking, including distributors breaking off into small groups to discuss pre-determined issues such as Internet policy, freight, budgeting/forecasting, and the always popular manufacturer-distributor relationship. I chose to sit in on the latter, simply because I knew it would illicit the most impassioned comments. In my never-ending quest to provide the most entertaining and insightful copy, here are some of the distributors’ thoughts. Names are withheld for obvious reasons.

The relationship

“Most have so many internal issues, such as cutbacks, that there has not been much in the way of relationship building.”

“I’ve never seen mills having the challenges they do today: Products not in the pipeline, no field representation, no customer service people. Add customer credit issues, and it doubles the situation.”

“Many vendors are not providing the service; longer lead times. This is the new reality.”

“We spend time trying to figure out how to better work together, but when we talk it’s more about problems than anything else. We don’t seem to pool our collective resources and work on strategy.”

“A lot of our vendors don’t have a real strategy that can be communicated downstream. It’s basically survival these days.”

“Nobody is happy with anybody right now. It has created much angst in the channel.”

Manufacturer reps

“Generally, there are fewer reps but with larger territories.”

“There are many reps who do not provide value. When a guy is covering 11 states, you are not going to see him a lot.”

“Reps are doing a lot on their laptops, emails, etc. If all you know is an email, it’s very impersonal.”

“Before a rep sells a product, he has to sell himself.”

Bypassing distributors

“Where I’m from, there are not enough good distributors to go around, so mills have to look for alternative channels.”

“Especially with low-priced Chinese wood, a lot of retailers are buying direct and are overlooking the levels of service and the consistency of material. Everything is being driven by lack of top-line sales. If there is a problem, there is no recourse.”

“When it comes to wood, look at the West Coast where all the imports are coming in. There are 100 agents, subagents, importers, all looking to move product. If they can’t hook up with a traditional distributor, they are going to figure out how to sell containers to large retailers. People are looking to move product any way they can. And, then there is the Internet.”

Dollars and sense

“We can’t make money providing Nordstrom services but working on Costco margins.”

“Margins are being squeezed, with value being defined as low price as opposed to something warm and fuzzy.”

“The big buzz is service engineering.”

“These days it’s about service, quality and price. Pick two.”