MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc. is a leading North American distributor of
metalworking and maintenance, repair and operations products and services. We
help our customers drive greater productivity, profitability, and growth with
more than one million products, inventory management and other supply chain
solutions, and deep expertise from 75 years of working with customers across
industries.
We operate primarily in the United States, with customers in all 50 states,
through a network of 12 customer fulfillment centers (eight customer fulfillment
centers are located within the United States, one is located in the United Kingdom
(the “U.K.”), and three are located in Canada) and 98 branch offices
(97 branches are located within the United States and one is located in the
U.K). MSC’s primary customer fulfillment centers are located in or near
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Atlanta, Georgia; Elkhart, Indiana; Reno, Nevada;
and Columbus, Ohio. In addition, we operate 7 smaller customer fulfillment centers
in or near Hanover Park, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; Shelbyville, Kentucky (repackaging
and replenishment center); Wednesbury, United Kingdom; Edmonton, Canada; Beamsville,
Canada; and Moncton, Canada. We offer a nationwide cutoff time of 8:00 P.M.,
Eastern Time on qualifying orders (excluding Class C Solutions Group “CCSG”),
which will be delivered to the customer the next-day at no additional cost over
standard MSC ground delivery charges. Our experience has been that areas accessible
by next-day delivery generate significantly greater sales than areas where next-day
delivery is not available.
MSC’s business strategy is to help our customers drive greater productivity,
profitability and growth by reducing their total cost for obtaining, using,
and maintaining their MRO supplies. We do that by offering more than one million
products, inventory management and other supply chain solutions, superior customer
service and value-added offerings, and deep expertise from 75 years of working
with customers across industries.
Our strategy includes the following key elements:
•providing a full suite of inventory management solutions, services and
skills to reduce the total cost of procuring, using and disposing of inventory;
•providing a broad selection of in-stock products, including national
industry brands and brands exclusive to MSC;
•providing prompt response, same-day shipping, and next-day delivery;
•delivering superior, “one call does it all” customer service
and technical support;
•providing a unique, specialized technical process to optimize our customers’
tooling usage;
•using advanced technologies to reduce procurement costs; and
•offering competitive pricing that reflects our value offering.
Inventory Management Solutions. Our inventory management solutions approach
starts with the understanding that a proper customer assessment is critical
to determining the service or group of services that will best meet our customers’
needs. Through our associates and their expertise with managing inventory solutions,
we are able to develop and recommend solutions that provide a value driven response.
Solution options that are customized to address customer size, complexity and
processes as well as specific product, technical and cost targets, might include
one or several of eProcurement, CMI, VMI, Vending, crib control, or part time
or full time on-site resources. The success of each customer engagement is optimized
by our world class sourcing, logistics and business systems that provide predictable,
reliable and scalable service.
Broad Selection of Products. Our customers are increasingly purchasing from
fewer suppliers to reduce the administrative burden of ordering from multiple
sources. We believe that our ability to offer customers a broad spectrum of
brand name, MSC exclusive brand and generic MRO products and a “good-better-best”
product selection alternative has been critical to our success. We offer products
with varying degrees of brand name recognition, quality and price, thus permitting
the customer to choose the appropriate product based on cost, quality and the
customer’s specific needs. We offer approximately 1,000,000 SKUs, many
of which are in stock and available for immediate shipment, and we aim to provide
a broad range of merchandise in order to become our customers’ preferred
supplier of MRO products.
Same-Day Shipping and Next-Day Delivery. We guarantee same-day shipping of
our core metalworking and MRO products. This prompt fulfillment and delivery
enables customers to reduce the administrative burden of dealing with many suppliers
and reduces their inventory investment and carrying costs. We fulfill our same-day
shipment guarantee approximately 99% of the time. We offer a nationwide cutoff
time of 8:00 P.M., Eastern Time on qualifying orders (excluding CCSG), which
will be delivered to the customer the next-day at no additional cost over standard
MSC ground delivery charges. Historically, our results indicate that areas accessible
by next-day delivery generate significantly greater sales than areas where next-day
delivery is not available.
Superior Customer Service. Customer service is a key element in becoming a
customer’s preferred provider of MRO supplies. Our commitment to customer
service is demonstrated by our investment in sophisticated information systems
and extensive training of our associates. Utilizing our proprietary customer
support software, MSC’s in-bound sales representatives implement the “one
call does it all” philosophy. In-bound sales representatives are able
to inform customers on a real-time basis of the availability of a product, recommend
substitute products, verify credit information, receive special, custom or manufacturer
direct orders, cross-check inventory items using customer product codes previously
entered into our information systems, and arrange or provide technical assistance.
We believe that our approach to fulfilling all purchasing needs of a customer
through highly trained customer service representatives supported by our proprietary
information systems, results in greater efficiency for customers and increased
customer satisfaction. To complement our customer service, we seek to ease the
administrative burdens on our customers by offering customized billing services,
customer savings reports and other customized report features, electronic data
interchange ordering, eCommerce capabilities, bulk discounts and stocking of
specialty items specifically requested by customers.
We also offer our customers technical support in our value-added solutions
for their diverse procurement needs, as well as customized one-on-one service
through our field or telemarketing sales representatives. We continue to develop
our technical support capabilities in order to better serve our customers. Our
customers recognize the value of a distributor that can provide technical support
to improve their operations and productivity. We deliver this support through
a field-based team of metalworking specialists that provide on-site technical
applications support for our customers. In addition, we have centralized technical
support teams that can provide phone and email support to both our sales teams
and customers on MRO products and applications.
Commitment to Technological Innovation. We take advantage of technological innovations
to support growth, improve customer service and reduce our operating costs through
more effective buying practices, automated inventory replenishment and efficient
order fulfillment operations. MSC’s proprietary software tracks all of
the SKUs available on the MSC Websites (approximately 1,000,000 SKUs) and enables
customers and sales representatives to determine the availability of products
in stock on a real-time basis and evaluate alternative products and pricing.
The MSC Websites contain a searchable online catalog with electronic ordering
capabilities designed to take advantage of the opportunities created by eCommerce.
The MSC Websites offer a broad array of products, services, workflow management
tools and related information to meet the needs of customers seeking to reduce
process costs through eCommerce-enabled solutions. Our information systems have
been designed to enhance inventory management and turnover, customer service
and cost reduction for both MSC and our customers. In addition to internal and
customer information systems, we continually upgrade our distribution methods
and systems to improve productivity and efficiency. We also provide comprehensive
electronic ordering capabilities (“EDI” and “XML”) to
support our customers’ purchase order processing. We continue to invest
in inventory management solutions with our VMI, CMI, and vending solutions.
These solutions enable our customers to streamline their replenishment processes
for products and lower their overall procurement costs by maintaining lower
inventory levels at their sites, reducing consumption, and providing product
accountability. The vending solutions also broaden the range of products that
customers may purchase from MSC, as customers with vending solutions often choose
to also reduce their overall number of vendors. MSC’s vending solutions
include different kinds of machines such as storage lockers or carousels, that
can stand alone or be combined with other machines. MSC vending machines use
network or web-based software to enable customers to manage inventory throughout
their production areas.
Advanced Technologies and www.mscdirect.com. We offer advanced technologies
that reduce customers’ acquisition costs for MRO supplies. These programs
include solutions such as vending, VMI, CMI, eCommerce, eProcurement, and workflow
management tools. Industrial vending solutions are becoming increasingly valued
by our customers as they focus on improving their operations, cost control and
vendor consolidation. These solutions can accommodate a range of products from
precision cutting tools to MRO supplies. We will continue to invest in our vending
program in support of our overall growth strategy as well as our goal to support
the identified needs of our customers. The MSC Websites are available 24 hours
a day, seven days a week, providing personalized real-time inventory availability,
