For more than 80 years, A. O. Smith has been a leading global innovator of water heating solutions.

Equipment Controls Company, an ASA manufacturer member based out of Norcross, Georgia, was ready to take training to the next level.

Everyone knows at least one person who can’t be away from their phone — even when behind the wheel.

Respondents to ASA’s monthly sales report reported a median sales increase of 1.7% for March 2023 vs. 2022. This represents the lowest this figure has been since February 2021. Year-to-date sales through March 2023 were up 8.9% vs. 2022.

While I’m not the first woman to be president of the American Supply Association, I am the first woman with the honor of attending the ASA Women in Industry ELEVATE conference as the ASA president —being the first woman to hold the role since the founding of the group in 2014.

With each passing year that the American Supply Association (ASA) Women in Industry Division holds it’s ELEVATE conference, it becomes more and more evident than the strength and representation of women in the PHCP-PVF supply chain is growing — much like the division itself.

At last year’s ASA Strategic Planning Retreat, volunteers discussed the idea of a “product data library” that could be the sole source of manufacturer product data to help enable distributors to compete against online-first, big-box retailers, and other nontraditional competitors.

Company training leaders and trainers come from many backgrounds with varying levels of learning and development experience. While not all have degrees in L&D, they most certainly have a passion for helping others to grow.

Advocacy is one of the pillars of the American Supply Association. When the association was founded more than 50 years ago, the need to advocate on behalf of the industry as a whole with a unified voice was paramount and the need remains today.

The ASA OPR has been regarded as the gold standard in PHCP-PVF distributor benchmarking for more than 40 years and presents more than 130 financial datapoints for wholesalers to compare themselves against the entire industry, firms of similar sales volume, similar product offerings and of similar geographical location.