Global Fastener News

April 27, 1992 FIN – William R. Fenoglio, president of Barnes Group Inc., Bristol, Connecticut, told shareholders on April 1 that the company plans to spend $10 million to $20 million in a broad expansion of its Bowman Distribution business in Europe.

Bowman is the company’s industrial maintenance and repair business, and last year had $239 million in sales, 45% of Barnes Group’s sales of $536 million. In North America, Bowman has 60,000 customers.
Fenoglio said that the decision to expand in Europe followed a successful pilot project in the United Kingdom, and that his plans call for setting up distribution centers and sales, administrative and service operations, at first in the U.K. and France, where the company already has small distribution businesses that use mobile vans.
Fenoglio said that he will be “duplicating what basically we’re doing in North America and taking it to Europe,” but that it will be a “major new initiative” with a “significant adverse impact on the company’s earnings” in its first few years.
The Barnes Group was founded in 1857 and remained a family-owned company until 1946. Family members remain in key positions on the board.

Editor’s Note: Although not widely known, Barbara Hackman Franklin, the consultant who was recently appointed as Secretary of Commerce, is married to Wallace Barnes, one of the principal family owners of the Barnes Group. ©1992/2013 Fastener Industry News.
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