Electrical Industry Roundtable 2014 - 21

SENCICH: Absolutely. You have to develop a relationship, but it
will only develop so far if you are talking to somebody that all of
a sudden starts speaking in a language that you don't understand
from a tech nical perspective. All of a sudden you can't develop that
relationship any further. If you don't have the
technical resources in your company to call on,
then you're stuck. A competitor who has invested
in the technical resources will end up servicing
that customer.
KERR: I want to ask what you think the
traditional full-line model might look like in
fi ve years? Will the traditional model still have
the majority of this market share? Right now
depending on which report you want to read, 7075%
of the electrical products in this country are
sold through traditional electrical channels. Will
that maintain itself?
SYER: It will, but those players will shiſt to e-business and logistics.
Will there be bricks and mortar with trucks in the parking lot lined
up out front and people serving coff ee and donuts at the counter?
About 75-80% of the time, it will be the same companies involved in
that business by virtue of scale and willingness to invest in logistics,
combined with an understanding of the customer.
BRANSCOMBE: Given the timeline of fi ve years, I think it's
accurate to say that the model will be an important part in the
chain, but even then we need to reinforce the value distributors
bring to manufacturers and the market in general. Manufacturers
know there is a fi nancial security to working through a distributor.
Until companies want to take that risk on themselves, I think there
will be a growth in the distribution channel even with e-commerce.
However, distributors are going to have to evaluate their businesses
and establish and support the requirements of our customers and
vendor partners.
KERR: JS and Murray, as agents you have a diff erent take on this
because of the pressure Murray talked about earlier. Manufacturers
are coming in and asking you to open up other channels and to
bring more of their basket to market. What is your take on this?
BERCIER: Th e fi nancial aspect is very important, even though there
are a lot of guys looking at going direct, I don't think it is a good idea
long term. Th ey might just experience it, tum around and go back to the
Canadian Electrical Wholesaler JUNE 2014
21
David Syer.
Electrical Industry Roundtable 2014

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