Things moving fast enough for you as we start 2015? Just this past week, Anixter International announced it is going to auction off its fastener division. I read a nice piece on Global Fastener News about some of the details. It refers to a report in the Financial Times of London that says “the sale of the fasteners division, which produces nuts, bolts and adhesives, is likely to fetch more than $500m, with final bids due later this month”. Just $500m?!? We in the fastener marketplace can only chuckle nervously. There is a $500m fastener distributor dangling out there and no one has stepped up to buy them (well, at least not at the asking price). It is not like there are a whole lot of $500m fastener distributors out there. Wow! That’s a whole lot of nuts & bolts just hanging out there looking for a new place to call home. I know a lot of good people who work for Anixter so I hope this all ends up good for them.
Then today, the announcement that Wurth is closing the Cardinal manufacturing facility in Cleveland is being emailed frantically around the industry. I’ve been copied several times already and, in turn, have passed along the same information to several others. It’s on Twitter now too so this information is pretty much out there for all to see.
Today is January 9. That is some pretty substantial news to start off the year. I can hardly wait to see what happens in Week 2.