Inline Electric & Lighting Endorses NEMRA POS Standards
August 2, 2022
Inline Electric and Lighting, ranked as the 57th largest electrical distributor in the country according to Electrical Wholesaling’s Top 150, has endorsed NEMRA’s POS / POT Minimum Reporting Standards.
With 19 locations in Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee, Inline Electric is a fast-growing Southeast electrical distributor. Historically the company focused on the Alabama market, however, with its recent acquisitions in the Tennessee market, Inline, knowing the importance of strong relationships with their independent electrical manufacturer representatives, sought to provide them with appropriate POS information.
Shortly after their acquisition of Williams Electric Supply. Bruce Summerville, President of Inline, contacted NEMRA to learn more about the NEMRA POS Standards.
According to Bruce, “We need the rep support, and we want to make sure that they are compensated.” When advised of the standards, process and that over 50 manufacturer brands have endorsed the standard he commented “this will make the process much easier for us.”
Upon reviewing the information with his team and adopting the standards, Summerville shared that “As Inline grows to service new markets in multiple states, we feel that our participation in the NEMRA point of sale program will help ensure that the proper sales credit goes to the representative responsible for helping establish the demand for products in the local market place. The proper reflection of sales credit to the proper source will improve Inline’s relationships with representatives in the markets that we both serve.
Christy Frame, Operations Manager, shared “We are just in the initial stages of working with vendors on the POS report. So far, implementing the standard in our system has been smooth…we expect to have to work out issues here and there but don’t expect those issues to be difficult.”
Jim Johnson, President of NEMRA, commented, “On behalf of the NEMRA independent manufacturer representatives in the Southeast we appreciate Inline’s endorsement. Their support further highlights that POS is not solely a national chain issue. Growing independents recognize the importance of supporting their local reps, whom they have a partnership with. Standards make the process easier, reduces operational costs and gets information to manufacturers and reps faster and more accurately. Every distributor that does business with manufacturers in multiple territories can benefit from the NEMRA POS standards and safeguard their customer information if they so desire. Thank you to Bruce for recognizing the opportunity.”
For more information on NEMRA’s POS initiative, to read the research and see which manufacturers and distributors have endorsed and adopted the standards, go to https://www.nemra.org/point-of-sale-initiative.
