Quick Update on Tool Shows

Laguna Beach, looking south.

David Bonitz, Silvertronics' Director of Sales for North America, shows off the quality of one of his leads to a Cornwell Dealer.
Patrick Gottsch, of CRKT (Columbia River Knife and Tool) had a great display. Knives are a hot item with mobile distributors.

Bill Stemple, VP of Marketing for Cornwell, reviews some of the new features of this Cornwell toolbox.

Spent last week in the West: first half of the week in Las Vegas for the Matco Show, second half in southern California (mostly Anaheim) for the Cornwell Show. Here's the 25 second review:

1 - LOTS of positive comments about business in general at both shows.

2 - was told by Matco personnel that they had strung two months of positive sales together and expected April to continue the trend

3 - was told by Cornwell management that their dealers are paying their bills on time and that technicians are (finally) getting financing.

4 - many manufacturers reported dismal sales since last Oct or Nov, but many were starting to see an uptick in orders. Some of this uptick came in February, some didn't start 'til March

5 - Santa Monica Beach has an interesting pier if you like touristy spots, but Laguna has a prettier beach.

Up is up. I'll take it. More info to follow later in the week.

Short Note Today

One day ahead of hearing it from everyone in your office, let me remind you that we Spring Forward this weekend. I can't remember if that means we gain an hour or lose an hour. And it doesn't really matter to me because I'll be flying 3 (or will it be 2) hours back in time to Las Vegas on Sunday morning. All I know for sure is that I'll be swapping our old batteries for new in every one of our smoke detectors. (Confidential to First Alert: Your marketing efforts worked on this household!)

This weekend the Matco Tool Fair begins. Next weekend I'll be off to Anaheim for the Cornwell Tool Rally. I've heard through the "grapevine" that Matco expects about 800-850 dealers and Cornwell has about 350 registered. Don't quote me on that though. As usual, I'll post everything new and exciting from the show once I get back.

In other news, at TechShop, we've been working on a new website. It will officially launch April 1, 2009, but you'll be able to see it earlier, by March 16th. Please bookmark the site, because my blog will be moving there and this blog will become inactive. I would hate to lose the few followers I have. http://www.techshopmag.com/ I'll remind you again later. We are also launching an all-new design for the magazine with our April issue. Guarantee you will LOVE it! It makes our competitors' efforts look like grade school scribbles. (Just my opinion.)

It was sunny for about a minute here today and it's starting to warm up finally. The clouds are coming in as I write this, and soon we'll endure a day and a half of rain. Nonetheless, I'm feeling optimistic. I was doing quite a bit of research this morning, and I think it's safe to say that portions of our economy are starting to see a pickup. Walmart and Sam's Club reported a sales increase of 5.1% for this February over last February. And ASA reported that a survey of 8,000 shop owners in 2008 reported a business increase of 16%. Perhaps Spring really is right around the corner, and perhaps the Recession is waning towards Recovery. I will definitely know more about what our automotive compatriots opinions are after next week.

Stay tuned!

Cornwell Tool Show - 2008

Just some photos from the Cornwell show, which took place last weekend in the Gaylord Resort in Nashville, TN. That's the world-famous Joe Mocilac from SP Tools in the top photo, showing off his latest and greatest new product to an earnest Cornwell Tool man. Center photo is the McCourt Industries tool truck. They take this truck to many shows throughout the year, to give distributors a better opportunity to see all they have to offer. Bottom photo is Mark Hessler from Vacula. He's demonstrating the value of their new DX-fluid handling products.