Grainger announces largest product expansion in its history
By Susan Avery -- Purchasing, 2/5/2008 9:51:00 AM
With the release of its catalog for 2008, Grainger has announced the largest product expansion in its history.
The new catalog has more than 3,900 pages and more than 183,000 maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products. That’s 44,000 more products than were listed in last year’s catalog. Grainger added products to the new catalog in such categories as power transmission products, raw materials and fleet maintenance.
At the same time, Grainger also launched Tough Guy, a private label professional cleaning supplies brand. The product category consists of degreasers, disinfectants, foam and lotion soaps and dispensers and polyethylene trash containers.
The product expansion is part of a multi-year program Grainger first announced exclusively in Purchasing in March 2005. The program accounted for approximately 2% of the company’s revenue from branch operations.
The products selected for the new catalog are those suggested to the distributor by its customers. In an interview with Purchasing, Seth Erickson, vice president of product merchandizing at Grainger said, “Our customers who are purchasing professionals continue to tell us that they really want to consolidate their buys. One way we can help with that is by having a broad line of products that we offer to our customers.”
New to the line are more than 4,000 power transmission products such as bearings, couplings, linear motion products and belts; 9,000 raw materials products such as metal, plastic, rubber and felt; 4,200 fleet maintenance products such as lift equipment, battery chargers and accessories. The company also added products to such categories as plumbing, electrical, tools and material handling.
Customers may order the products through the catalog or the company’s website. All are in stock and available to ship same day.
Many of the products are being provided by Grainger’s current suppliers. The company also is working with some new suppliers, and expects to continue to add suppliers in the future. It also expects to continue to add products, which will be available through its website, throughout the year.
Based in Lake Forest, Ill., Grainger is ranked number four on Industrial Distribution magazine’s Big 50 list for 2007. It had annual sales of $5.9 billion in 2006.
See also: Grainger expands operation in eastern U.S. to meet demand
and Grainger publishes new catalog with more than 138,000 MRO items
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