Washington, DC … The National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) is launching a new strategic relationship with Deloitte & Touche LLP and Deloitte Consulting LLP ("Deloitte US") to develop strategies, tools, and techniques to assist wholesaler@distributors, "to be so good at what they do that nobody else will do it."
The joint initiative was announced today at NAW's 2004 Executive Summit in Washington, DC. It is anticipated that the relationship will have an initial phase of two years during which the two organizations will develop and deploy knowledge that distributor management can apply to their business practices to help wholesaler-distributors remain a strongly preferred force in the supply chain.
NAW's Distribution Research and Education Foundation (DREF) will be involved in the initiative, as well.
"This is a truly exciting undertaking," said NAW Chairman Andre Lacy. "Our distribution industry has long been the best in the world. Through our relationship with Deloitte US in this initiative, we intend to help it remain world class by helping to bring the best management strategies and business practices to our industry in a manner which facilitates efficient and effective implementation by distribution companies."
"These discussions with Deloitte US started when we learned of their very successful implementation of an SAP enterprise system for Graybar Electric Company, a major NAW member," observed NAW President Dirk Van Dongen.
"This led us into discussions with Neil Gholson, Deloitte Consulting LLP's Global Segment Leader, Wholesale Distribution. Neil's passion for wholesale distribution was immediately evident, one thing led to another, and both organizations ultimately realized the value of establishing a truly comprehensive relationship."
In remarks at the NAW meeting, Gholson stated, "We, at Deloitte US, are looking forward to bringing real value to the members of NAW by providing research, benchmarking studies and a practical understanding of emerging technology that can help this industry improve margins, increase asset efficiency, and grow revenues."
The National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors is a federation of 131 international, national, regional, state, and local trade associations representing wholesaler-distributors of virtually every product sold to industrial, commercial, contractor, institutional, and retail customers. NAW's membership comprises approximately 40,000 companies with 150,000 places of business—a significant portion of the nation's $2.8 trillion-per-year merchant wholesale distribution industry.
The Distribution Research and Education Foundation is the long-range research arm of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors. For nearly forty years, DREF has sponsored basic research designed to make wholesaler-distributors more efficient and effective members of product and service supply chains serving a wide range of customer industries.
Deloitte, one of the nation's leading professional services firms, provides audit, tax, financial advisory services and consulting through nearly 30,000 people in more than 80 U.S. cities. For more information, please visit Deloitte's web site at .
