Electrical Marketing's LiveWire

Found this post about Amazon on Internet Retailer rather interesting…. The company is building four new warehouses/ fufillment in Tennessee and Virginia to the tune of $270 million. The company currently has 69 warehouses around the world. According to the company’s 2011 10-K,
its warehouses and fufillment centers cover 26.1 million square feet.

ConEdison Solutions, Valhalla, N.Y., has named Monte Mickle as regional sales manager for the ESCO’s Texas region. He will support ConEdison Solutions’ growing Texas commodities team, the company said. Prior to joining ConEdison Solutions, Mickle served as a senior vice president for Tecnilogix, LLC, and before that as director of business development for Constellation NewEnergy. Mickle graduated from Brigham Young University with a B.A. in International Relations and has over 25 years experience working in the energy industry.

Houston Wire & Cable Co. (HWCC), Houston, named James L. Pokluda III, the company’s current president, to the additional position of chief executive officer, in line with a succession plan announced earlier this year. Pokluda also takes a seat on the company’s board of directors, effective January 1, 2012. Pokluda will replace Charles A. Sorrentino, the company’s current CEO, who will resign from the board and retire as CEO at year end.

Pokluda was appointed president in May 2011 after 24 years of substantial contributions to the company, including the construction and leadership of its long-term growth plan, implementation of its National Service Center, commercialization of its private branded products, co-leadership of the initial public offering in 2006, the add-on offering in 2007, and 2010 acquisitions. Pokluda served on the board of the Houston Electrical League (HEL) for several years, is an affiliate member of the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED), and a graduate of the College of Engineering at Texas A&M University.

HWCC also announced that its board named William H. Sheffield its new chairman, effective January 1, 2012. Sheffield will assume the chairman role from Scott L. Thompson, who will remain on the board.

With November’s housing starts up 9.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 685,000 units, executives from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), Washington, D.C., are starting to like what they see in the homebuilding data. NAHB Chairman Bob Nielsen, a home builder from Reno, Nev., said in a press release, “While we still have a long way to go back to normal, the latest numbers are one more indication that housing is slowly turning the corner. In scattered markets across the country, buyers who have long sat on the sidelines are starting to take advantage of today’s very attractive prices and interest rates, while others are making the move to a new apartment. This nascent trend would be stronger if not for the very restrictive lending environment that continues for both building and buying new homes.”
David Crowe, NAHB’s chief economist, said the latest housing data points toward a slow-but positive growth evnvironment for homebuilders in 2012. “Along with recent gains that have been registered in builder confidence and other economic measures, the improvement in new-home production and permitting shown in this latest report provides further evidence of the gradual strengthening that we expected to see in housing markets toward the end of the year,” he said in that press statement. “We anticipate continued, slow improvement in housing starts and sales through 2012.” Details

BlueVolt, Portland, Ore., a provider of online training, recently launched HD Supply University for HD Supply, Atlanta. A BlueVolt press release said HD Supply University gives the company’s customers a competitive advantage in the marketplace by providing high-quality online training. Since launching HD Supply University, more than 800 of HD Supply’s customers have had employees take the training on topics such as plumbing, electrical and appliance repair.

TheBlueVolt platform has a reporting feature that allows the company’s elearning administrators to see which customers are most engaged with various product training courses, and who may need additional support or information. To ensure ease-of-use, HD Supply is using BlueVolt’s customized auto-enrollment feature, which automatically places enrolled participants into the appropriate company group and displays relevant courses to each individual learner. This user-friendly feature removes the need for learners to find courses or join a group on their own, which is often a barrier to successful elearning participation and knowledge retention. BlueVolt says that as of this month it has delivered more than 1,094,000 courses to over 180,000 registered users.

Schneider Electric announced a strategic technology acquisition of the Viridity EnergyCenter 2.0 platform, the flagship product of a well-known start-up specializing in data center infrastructure management (DCIM) software that provides a cross-functional solution for understanding the connection between physical infrastructure, IT equipment and the applications that run on them.

With this investment Schneider Electric will acquire the intellectual property and software behind the Viridity EnergyCenter 2.0 platform. The investment will augment Schneideer’s StruxureWare for Data Center Operations DCIM suite

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Eaton Corp. (NYSE:ETN), Cleveland, announced last week that it has agreed to acquire E.A. Pedersen Co., Omaha, Neb., a manufacturer of medium voltage switchgear primarily for the electrical utilities industry. Eaton Power Distribution President Rich Stinson said the deal “will strengthen Eaton’s medium voltage assembly business by adding important utility-oriented power products and custom engineering capabilities for our U.S. markets.” The deal is subject to customary closing conditions. Terms were not disclosed.

Pederson’s products include metal-clad switchgear, power control buildings and relay control panels. E.A. Pedersen does business as Pedersen Power Products and employs about 150 people. The company is expected to have 2011 sales of approximately $37 million.

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