Electrical Contracting News (ECN) September 2017 | Page 67

WHOLESALERS & DISTRIBUTORS
SPECIAL
FEATURE
Electrical
wholesalers face an
uphill struggle. Any
business that wants
to survive needs to
anticipate change
and tackle any
challenges that are
evolving.
CAN WHOLESALERS HANG ON?
With the lighting industry undergoing rapid change, the wholesale market has
some tough decisions ahead. Adrian Kitching of Crompton Lamps explains
the challenges and looks at how wholesalers need to stay one step ahead.
T
oday’s electrical
wholesalers face growing
competition from
alternate channels such
as virtual distributors on
the internet, catalogue
houses and direct
sales, all of which give
customers new choices in sources of
supply. To understand just how threatening
these disruptors can be, think about what
Netflix did to Blockbuster, or what digital
cameras did to the manufacturers of
photographic film.
Any business that wants to survive and
thrive in the long-term needs to anticipate
change and put plans in place to tackle any
challenges that are evolving. For electrical
wholesalers, one of the major challenges
relates to the changing routes to market for
lighting products.
More LED choice
A major driver behind these changes is the
explosion of new LED technologies over
the last 10 years, displacing many of the
traditional lighting products and delivering
much wider choice for customers. There is
now a multitude of different wattages and
lumen outputs in an ever-broadening range
of formats, such as clear, pearl, filament
and crown prism effect.
From the end customer’s point of
view, having a wider choice is clearly
a good thing, but too much choice can
lead to difficulty making decisions. For
the wholesaler, it creates significant
challenges in terms of stock holdings and
product obsolescence, with the average
LED product cycle now at standing at 12
months before it is superseded.
September 2017 | 67