W.W. Grainger enjoys 4% growth in 1Q 2013

Grainger's 1Q 2013 sales were up 4%.
April 16, 2013

W.W. Grainger Inc., Lake Forest, Ill.,  reported 1Q 2013 sales of $2.3 billion, an increase of 4% over 1Q 2012. Net earnings for the quarter increased 13% percent to $212 million versus $188 million in 2012.  The company raised its guidance for 2013 sales growth to 5%-9%, up from its previous guidance of 3%-9% 2013 annual sales growth.

Chairman, President and CEO Jim Ryan said in a press release on the financial results. “We are encouraged by the solid start to the year, despite facing difficult comparisons with 2012. Our continued strong performance puts us in a position to further accelerate our growth spending to extend our lead in the MRO industry. Over the balance of the year, we will invest in eCommerce, our sales force, our distribution center network and our enterprise systems that will provide value to our customers and help us gain additional market share longer term.”  Details

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Jim Lucy has been wandering through the electrical market for more than 30 years, most of the time as an editor for Electrical Wholesaling, Electrical Marketing newsletter and CEE News. During that time he and the editorial team for the publications have won numerous national awards for their coverage of the electrical business. He showed an early interest in electricity, when as a youth he had an idea for a hot dog cooker. Unfortunately, the first crude prototype malfunctioned and the arc nearly blew him out of his parents' basement. Before becoming an editor for Electrical Wholesaling magazine and Electrical Marketing, he earned a BA degree in journalism and a MA in communications from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, NJ., which is formerly best known as the site of the 1967 summit meeting between President Lyndon Johnson and Russian Premier Aleksei Nikolayevich Kosygin, and now best known as the New Jersey state college that changed its name in 1992 to Rowan University because of a generous $100 million donation by N.J. zillionaire industrialist Henry Rowan. Jim is a Brooklyn-born Jersey Guy happily transplanted in the fertile plains of Kansas for the past 20 years.