News and Trends

• Spartan sells off Pharm stores
  Spartan Stores Inc. has made a deal to sell a dozen of its 14 Pharm discount drugstores to Rite Aid Corp. for $12.8 million, along with the value of the inventory, as part of its plan to exit the standalone drugstore business. The other two locations are being sold off in separate deals. "Divesting these stores ... will allow us to concentrate efforts and resources on business opportunities with the best long-term growth potential and focus more on our core distribution and conventional supermarket operations," said Spartan CEO Craig Sturken. The Grand Rapids Press (Mich.) (4/3)

• McKesson Corp. buys maker of hospital tracking systems
  McKesson Corp. said Tuesday it will acquire Rosebud Solutions, an Ann Arbor, Mich., company that makes software that enables hospitals to track equipment using bar codes and wireless transmitters. McKesson says the Rosebud system will complement its own lineup of surgical software offerings. Rosebud, a privately held company, reported 2007 revenues of approximately $3 million. The Ann Arbor News (Mich.) (4/2)

• Sysco sets May opening for Knoxville distribution center
  Sysco Food Services is set to open a 353,000-square-foot, $37 million distribution center in Knoxville, Tenn., next month, after more than a year of construction. Sysco Food Services of Knoxville LLC will serve around 2,600 customers in Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia. knoxnews.com (4/3)

• Other News

• Wolseley to list ADR shares on international OTC stock exchange
  Industrial Distribution (4/3)

• VWR's purchase of lab supplier Jencons complements products, exec says
  Industrial Distribution (4/1)

• Reliance Steel expands in aerospace niche with Dynamic Metals buy
  Modern Distribution Management (4/3)

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Best Practices

• Keep culture in mind when doing business in Europe
  With the strong euro, U.S. manufactures have plenty of opportunities to sell their products in Europe, but companies need to brush up on the discrete cultural and operational practices that dictate how business is done in the various markets. BusinessWeek (4/2)

• HR sees no shortage of job interview blunders
  Human resource professionals get to see some the biggest blunders imaginable in job interviews. A CareerBuilder.com survey of the top 10 blunders includes a candidate who said he was fired for beating up his last boss and one who flushed the toilet during a phone interview. This article also offers suggestions for a successful interview. Manage Smarter (4/2)

Sales

• How does your sales compensation plan rate?
  A survey of more than 130 companies to examine what firms are doing to boost sales productivity and better manage their compensation plan administration, concludes that all businesses fall into one of three categories where sales compensation is concerned: Best in Class, Industry Average or Laggards. Selling Power (free registration) (4/1)

Hot Topics

Top five news stories selected by NAW SmartBrief readers in the past week.

• Home Depot rapid deployment center yields positive results (Modern Distribution Management)

• HD Supply buys Calif. firm, anticipates other acquisitions (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

• Women excel at sales (Inc.com)

• Fed's role forever changed with Bear Stearns bailout (The Washington Post)

• Help sales managers with coaching, information (Manage Smarter)

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

Small Business Manager

• Advice for improving on-the-job training
  Employee training has been proven to increase profitability and retention, but small businesses usually do not have time or funds to assess how well their training works. Jack Phillips of ROI Institute in Chelsea, Ala., suggests companies make sure training addresses the specific issue they want resolved, get managers to support training, require training vendors to prove their training works, ask for evaluations of the process and follow up. The Wall Street Journal (4/3)

Executive Life

• Screen on new Sony set thinner than its cord
  Sony is releasing an 11-inch version of its XEL-1, which will mark the first TV available in the U.S. featuring organic light-emitting diodes, a technology that uses less power to produce a stronger picture on an ultrathin screen. The 16:9 widescreen set will retail for $2,500, but Sony demonstrated a 27-inch version in January and is expected to ramp up production on OLED models. The New York Times (4/3)

• Louisiana's Kisatchie National Forest is outdoor playground
  The Kisatchie National Forest in Louisiana comes alive in the springtime when wild azaleas, sassafras trees and lavender vie for attention with the area's abundant wildlife. The forest's 600,000 acres offer plenty of space for hikers, campers, kayakers and other outdoor enthusiasts to play. The New York Times (4/4)

NAW Insider

• Register for NAW's Large Company Financial Networking Conference
  NAW's Large Company Financial Networking Conference is in Chicago, May 13 to 14. It joins top-level financial executives from wholesale distribution companies with sales of $100 million and above to network and learn. Agenda topics are based on responses from the financial community and address specific needs of the group, including risk management, strategic pricing and generational demographics. Get the details and register.

• Should you become an acquisitive distributor?
  This NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence book The Acquisitive Distributor pinpoints steps to success when one wholesale distribution firm sets out to acquire another. It can help you grow your business by showing you how the best acquisitive distributors operate.

Weekly Poll

• How will your company adjust to an economic downturn?
  After voting once, check out the real-time poll results on NAW's All Access page as often as you'd like.

	Reduce travel spending
	Minimize spending for training
	Cut back on advertising and marketing
	Decrease the technology budget
	We have no planned cuts

Industrial Sales Manager Broner Glove and Safety Company Auburn Hills, MI Vice President, Sales Liquidity Services Inc Fullerton, CA Inside Sales Anich Industries, Inc Ocala, FL

SmartQuote

Never invest in a business you cannot understand." --Warren Buffett, American businessman