Don’t Miss It: SM’s Post-ISSA Product Showcase

If people are the heart of a jan/san distribution business, then products are the backbone. Relationships count, and reliable service is mandatory, but at the end of the day, facility managers and their staffs need products that help them accomplish their specific facility-maintenance goals. Your customers also want you to demonstrate new solutions, and take steps to provide tools that ensure their continuous improvement.

This month’s issue is dedicated to the products that support your sales mission. Each year, the ISSA/INTERCLEAN^® trade show proves to be the best venue to locate the latest and greatest in cleaning and maintenance products. The only downfall: there’s not enough time to talk to every manufacturer, or to track down every new, ground-breaking solution — or even to peruse each aisle completely.

So each year, SM’s editors take this opportunity to provide readers — including those who weren’t able to attend the show — a roundup of some of the most exciting new product developments found at the show. We present many of the industry’s best innovations — nearly 100 photos and descriptions. While paging through our special Products section, feel free to relax and put your feet up. After three days on the show floor, they probably could use the rest.

Also, in this issue, associate editor Alex Runner reports on the increasing attention distributors are directing toward running efficient warehouses. Distributors are finding that, when faced with shrinking profit margins caused by competitive and economic pressures, tweaking inefficient areas of warehouse operations leads to increased profitability. Alex uncovered four areas of warehouse management where a handful of savvy distributors are removing bottlenecks and implementing technology to get these processes synchronized and running smoothly.