MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc. Announces Enhanced Customer Support Model
January 20, 2021 at 04:20 pm
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MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc. announced a series of actions designed to enhance the in-person and virtual support provided to customers. The company will move from its branch office network to virtual customer care hubs to provide personalized support to its customers, regardless of their physical location. MSC will close 73 branch offices, which have been closed temporarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales associates who previously worked in these offices will continue to work remotely through virtual customer care hubs to maintain customer relationships and personalized service in local markets. Included as part of this plan is the reduction of roughly 115 management and other positions within the commercial sales organization that interact infrequently with customers. The company expects to achieve ongoing annual cost savings of $15 million to $18 million beginning in fiscal 2022, and savings of $7 million to $9 million in fiscal 2021. A portion of the expected savings will be reinvested into customer-facing sales roles that support the company's five growth initiatives: Metalworking, Solutions, Selling the Portfolio, Digital, and Diversified End Markets. To achieve the savings, the company expects to incur total costs and charges related to these actions in the range of approximately?$21 million to?$25 million in fiscal 2021, the majority of which will be in its fiscal second quarter. These non-recurring costs include a one-time impairment charge for the lease right-of-use assets, associate separation benefits charges, and other exit-related costs.
MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc. is a North American distributor of a range of metalworking and maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products and services. Its range of MRO products includes cutting tools, measuring instruments, tooling components, metalworking products, fasteners, flat stock, raw materials, abrasives, machinery hand and power tools, safety and janitorial supplies, plumbing supplies, materials handling products, power transmission components and electrical supplies. It serves a range of customers throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom, from individual machine shops to manufacturing companies to government agencies, such as the United States General Services Administration and the United States Department of Defense. It operates a network of six customer fulfillment centers, 10 regional inventory centers and 41 warehouses. The Company's customer fulfillment centers have various locations in the United States.