May 31, 2022

May CG Propylene Settles Down 10c/lb

May 31, 2022

May CG Propylene Settles Down 10c/lb

May 31, 2022

Applied Adhesives Makes Another Acquisition

Arsenal’s APPLIED Adhesives

Acquires Alliance Adhesives

MINNETONKA, Minn., May 25, 2022 – APPLIED Adhesives, a premier custom adhesive solutions provider in North America, today announced that it has completed its acquisition of Alliance Adhesives, a regional supplier of adhesives and dispensing equipment solutions located in Oldsmar, FL. This acquisition strengthens the Company’s commitment to providing industry-leading products, technical expertise, and superior service to its customers.

“Alliance’s dedication to providing an exceptional customer experience is in direct alignment with Applied’s commitment to relentless customer focus, demonstrating an ideal cultural fit,” said John Feriancek, President and CEO of APPLIED Adhesives. “We are pleased to welcome Alliance Adhesives to APPLIED Adhesives and look forward to providing their customers with the outstanding service and innovative solutions they have come to expect.”

“Alliance always has the mindset that we are an extension of our customers’ business by supporting their needs to drive their success. Our relationship with our customers is our number one priority. We have them to thank for who we are today,” said David Rittenhouse, President of Alliance Adhesives. “Applied shares those same values and mindset. We feel the support that Applied brings to the table and their passion for relentless customer focus makes this a win for everyone.”

About APPLIED Adhesives

APPLIED Adhesives, founded in 1971, is a premier custom adhesive solutions provider in North America. The company is a value-added distributor of hot melt, water-based, and reactive adhesives as well as dispensing equipment. APPLIED Adhesives serves as a critical supply chain partner to leading adhesive manufacturers and formulators by offering reach and high service levels to an expansive customer base. For more information, please visit appliedadhesives.com or follow us on LinkedIn. 

About Alliance Adhesives

Located in Oldsmar, FL, Alliance Adhesives is a regional, family-owned manufacturer and distributor of industrial adhesives. For 20 years, customers have depended on Alliance for cost-effective solutions for their adhesives needs. Alliance serves customers of all types including small- and medium-sized businesses, large enterprises, agricultural, educational institutions, government agencies, and consumers. For more information, please visit Allianceadhesives.com

About Arsenal Capital Partners

Arsenal is a leading private equity firm that specializes in investments in middle-market industrial growth and healthcare companies. Since its inception in 2000, Arsenal has raised institutional equity investment funds of more than $10 billion, has completed more than 250 platform and add-on investments, and achieved more than 30 realizations. Arsenal invests in industry sectors in which the firm has significant prior knowledge and experience. The firm works with management teams to build strategically important companies with leading market positions, high growth, and high value-add. Visit www.arsenalcapital.com for more information.

May 31, 2022

Applied Adhesives Makes Another Acquisition

Arsenal’s APPLIED Adhesives

Acquires Alliance Adhesives

MINNETONKA, Minn., May 25, 2022 – APPLIED Adhesives, a premier custom adhesive solutions provider in North America, today announced that it has completed its acquisition of Alliance Adhesives, a regional supplier of adhesives and dispensing equipment solutions located in Oldsmar, FL. This acquisition strengthens the Company’s commitment to providing industry-leading products, technical expertise, and superior service to its customers.

“Alliance’s dedication to providing an exceptional customer experience is in direct alignment with Applied’s commitment to relentless customer focus, demonstrating an ideal cultural fit,” said John Feriancek, President and CEO of APPLIED Adhesives. “We are pleased to welcome Alliance Adhesives to APPLIED Adhesives and look forward to providing their customers with the outstanding service and innovative solutions they have come to expect.”

“Alliance always has the mindset that we are an extension of our customers’ business by supporting their needs to drive their success. Our relationship with our customers is our number one priority. We have them to thank for who we are today,” said David Rittenhouse, President of Alliance Adhesives. “Applied shares those same values and mindset. We feel the support that Applied brings to the table and their passion for relentless customer focus makes this a win for everyone.”

About APPLIED Adhesives

APPLIED Adhesives, founded in 1971, is a premier custom adhesive solutions provider in North America. The company is a value-added distributor of hot melt, water-based, and reactive adhesives as well as dispensing equipment. APPLIED Adhesives serves as a critical supply chain partner to leading adhesive manufacturers and formulators by offering reach and high service levels to an expansive customer base. For more information, please visit appliedadhesives.com or follow us on LinkedIn. 

About Alliance Adhesives

Located in Oldsmar, FL, Alliance Adhesives is a regional, family-owned manufacturer and distributor of industrial adhesives. For 20 years, customers have depended on Alliance for cost-effective solutions for their adhesives needs. Alliance serves customers of all types including small- and medium-sized businesses, large enterprises, agricultural, educational institutions, government agencies, and consumers. For more information, please visit Allianceadhesives.com

About Arsenal Capital Partners

Arsenal is a leading private equity firm that specializes in investments in middle-market industrial growth and healthcare companies. Since its inception in 2000, Arsenal has raised institutional equity investment funds of more than $10 billion, has completed more than 250 platform and add-on investments, and achieved more than 30 realizations. Arsenal invests in industry sectors in which the firm has significant prior knowledge and experience. The firm works with management teams to build strategically important companies with leading market positions, high growth, and high value-add. Visit www.arsenalcapital.com for more information.

May 23, 2022

More on Inventories

Bloated inventories hit Walmart, Target and other retailers’ profits, trucking demand

Too much stock means lower truckload volumes, more intermodal business

Mark SolomonFriday, May 20, 2022 4 minutes read

Listen to this article 0:00 / 6:18 BeyondWords

There’s little in retailing that Walmart Inc. and Target Corp. aren’t prepared to handle. So it was jarring that over a 24-hour period the two scions of the trade posted weak first-quarter profits that appeared to blindside their management teams.

Part of the bottom-line blowup was due to fuel, which soared to record highs following Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. Part of it was due to margin pressures caused by an unfavorable sales mix as consumers shifted their buying from higher-margin goods like electronics to less profitable items like groceries. An extension of that was an overshoot of inventory-stocking activity, which came back to bite the retailers after waning concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic pushed more consumer buying toward services and “experiences” and away from goods.

There’s little that retailers can do about fuel prices. It can be argued they should have expected the pandemic-driven buying spree from March 2020 until the end of 2021 to peter out and that they should have planned their inventory strategies accordingly. Yet demand forecasting has always been a tough nut to crack, and the market is where it is. Inventory build may also have been the result of supply chain delays at the start of the year that resulted in some late deliveries of impaired freight.

Inventory levels as of March, when compared to activity in March 2019 after inventories stabilized following a major pull-forward in 2018 ahead of the Trump administration’s China tariffs, produce a mixed bag of results. Unsurprisingly given the current dearth of motor vehicles, the ratio of vehicle and parts inventories to sales has fallen considerably, according to federal government data analyzed by Michigan State University. Apparel inventories to sales also declined over those periods, as did e-commerce. 

However, furniture, home furnishings and appliances, building materials and garden equipment, and a category known as “other general merchandise,” which includes Walmart and Target, among others, reported higher inventory-to-sales ratios, according to government data analyzed by Michigan State.

For the latter sectors, the change has happened fast, according to Jason Miller, logistics professor at MSU’s Eli Broad College of Business. As of November, inventory-to-sales ratios were at pre-COVID levels, Miller said. They have since exploded upward.

Miller said he expects a “cooldown” in retailer order volumes, even if inflation-adjusted sales stay constant, as retailers look to reduce their existing stock. He also expects retailers to launch major discounting programs to expedite the inventory burn. Fewer orders within certain categories bodes ill for carriers whose networks are strongly tied to inbound lanes to retailers’ distribution centers, Miller said.

In a Friday note, Bascome Majors, analyst for Susquehanna Investment Group, said that the spread between year-over-year sales and inventories — a rough barometer of the impact of higher sales on restocking activity — turned positive in spring 2020 and accelerated in favorable territory for four consecutive quarters. Gradually, however, the spread has turned negative, according to Majors. In this year’s first quarter, inventory growth exceeded sales growth by 200 basis points. The recent surge in inflation, Majors wrote, has severely distorted inventory and sales trends.

Freight recession priced in?

For some, high inventory levels are an expected occurrence and should be welcomed. In a Tuesday note, Amit Mehrotra, transport analyst at Deutsche Bank, said rising buffer stock is part of retailers’ desire to have goods available when consumers scan the shelves. Mehrotra added, however, that the data points translate into a likely slowdown in freight flows in the coming months and quarters. 

He said that a recession is already priced into most transportation equities, noting that the shares of most trucking companies are higher over the past 30 days while the broader market is about 7% lower.

In an unusual world, Walmart, Target and other retailers are likely to turn to the one area where they’ve traditionally found leverage: their shipping bill. During the quarter, Target (NYSE: TGT) faced freight and transportation costs that were hundreds of millions of dollars above already-elevated expectations, COO John Mulligan said on the company’s Wednesday analyst call. It was essentially the same story at Walmart (NYSE: WMT).

Retailers’ efforts to rein in transportation costs will translate into an unprecedented third and even fourth round of truckload contract negotiations, with users getting more aggressive in their bids to extract greater cost savings, according to industry experts. 

The discussions could get contentious. In a LinkedIn post on Friday, Jason Ickert, president of trucking firm Sonwil Logistics, said a large shipper that Ickert wouldn’t identify suggested on a conference call this week with truckload carriers that they were “artificially propping up their rates” above accepted market levels. The shipper “stated clearly” that the carriers were expected to adjust their rates during what would be an “unprecedented and unplanned” third round of request for proposals, Ickert wrote. 

A potential shift to intermodal

Pressures to drive down transport expenses will also trigger increased interest in intermodal, whose all-in costs are cheaper relative to contract truckload than at any time since 2018. Intermodal rates have risen at a slower pace than truckload contract rates, a turnabout from the 2019 freight recession when higher intermodal rates allowed over-the-road transport to gain market share.

The shift to intermodal, if it happens, would benefit the railroads and intermodal marketers like J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. (NASDAQ: JBHT), Hub Group Inc. (NASDAQ: HUBG) and Schneider Inc. (NASDAQ: SNDR). However, experts caution that intermodal capacity remains constrained, as does warehouse space needed to store the stuff. 

“Walmart, Target and other retailers will soak up every drop of intermodal capacity that Hunt, Hub, Schneider and the rails deliver in 2022 and probably in 2023,” said Majors of Susquehanna Investment Group. The elevated level of activity, he said, should occur even if retailers are working through a multiquarter process of de-stocking.