Affilated Distributors hosted more than 100 Industrial Supply Division sales and marketing executives at the first A-D Safety Conference in Chicago.

McJunkin Corp, Cameron & Barkley and their joint venture McJunkin-Cambar have signed an agreement to acquire certain assets of 18 Fairmont Supply Co. industrial-supply branches and stores-management sites.

Deacon Industrial Supply Co. reached an agreement with Herman Goldner Co. to purchase certain assets of Goldner's Industrial Supply Division.

A little more than a year after its founding, supplyFORCE.com announced that it will target virtually all its sales and marketing activities and technology development at national accounts and integrated supply.

A recent survey points to rapid growth in Internet commerce over the next two years in the industrial-supply business.

Wilson Industries, a subsidiary of Smith International, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all the net assets of Houston-based Van Leeuwen Pipe and Tube Corp.

The business-research firm The Freedonia Group projects U.S. demand for industrial valves to rise 3.8% annually to $12 billion in 2004.

Plotkin Bros. Supply (Glassport, Pa.) has signed a letter of intent to join USFlow.

Few would argue that technology has had - and will continue to have - enormous impact on the way business is done. But the expanded use of technology and increased reliance on integrated-supply does not represent a threat to distributors.

The joint venture McJunkin-Cambar Corp. has reached an agreement to acquire the electrical business of McJunkin Corp.