Inside Grainger: when the recession hit, distributor W.W. Grainger used its cash and vision to gain market share and create what it hopes will be the "perfect order" for customers. (Cover Story).

Industrial Maintenance & Plant Operation, November, 2002 by Syverson, Nancy

Ask president and chief operating officer Wesley M. Clark to describe Grainger's recession-survival strategy and he will tell you: "We're going to power through it." When he says this, he exudes the self-confidence of a man who deeply believes in what he is doing.

It's a big responsibility running the leading and largest industrial distributor in the United States. Already more than twice the size of its closest competitor, WW Grainger, the Lake Forest, IL-based king of industrial distribution, plans on holding on to that distinction.

"This is a time when a lot of industrial distributors have cut back their inventory position," says Clark. "The bottom of a recession is a tough place to manage cash flow."

According to Clark, a lot of...

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