NEWS

News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DAYTON, OH, September 6, 2005 - Roger E. (Eddie) Gibbs has been named vice president of vendor relations for WinWholesale, one of the nation's largest wholesale distributors.

Gibbs was vice president of sourcing for Noland Company when WinWholesale acquired the Newport News, Va.-based firm in May 2005. Prior to joining Noland in 2003, Gibbs spent nearly 30 years with Hughes Supply Co., serving as its director of purchasing for more than a decade.

In his new position, Gibbs will be based in WinWholesale's corporate offices in Dayton and serve as the company's principal liaison with its vendors. In addition, he will continue to coordinate vendor negotiations for Noland, which operates as a WinWholesale subsidiary.

"Eddie Gibbs has done an outstanding job over the past couple of years in re-engineering and upgrading Noland's sourcing function," said WinWholesale president and CEO Rick Schwartz. "This dual oversight will ensure optimum effectiveness in helping both WinWholesale and Noland achieve their mutual goals of lower product acquisition costs, greater market penetration and increased profitability."

WinWholesale oversees and assists more than 400 local wholesale companies, or locations, under a business model that emphasizes local ownership and decision-making supported by centralized technical and administrative services. Noland operates as a wholly owned WinWholesale subsidiary with nearly 100 branches. Collectively, WinWholesale and Noland represent more than 530 locations in 43 states, with 5,100 employees and estimated 2005 revenues of nearly $2 billion.

News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DAYTON, OH, August 22, 2005 - WinWholesale, one of the nation's largest industrial wholesale distributors, announced that on August 1, 2005 it acquired the assets of Seymour, Indiana-based Midway Supply Corporation. In addition to its Seymour headquarters, Midway Supply operated branches in the southern Indiana communities of Bedford, Lawrenceburg, Madison and Scottsburg. Now that it is under the WinWholesale banner, it reopened as Midway Winnelson Company.

Midway Supply Corporation opened in 1954. In 1978, it was purchased by James (Jim) Johnson. Johnson and his employees grew the company steadily, and annual sales in 2004 reached $11,000,000. Always an active member of the southern Indiana business community and the wholesaling industry, Jim Johnson previously served as president of the Central Supply Association and was a national director of the American Supply Association.

"Jim and Peggy Johnson know the wholesaling business as well as anybody in our industry, and have built a very successful company. The fact that they were willing to join the Win Group of Companies speaks highly, I think, of the opportunities WinWholesale offers companies with an interest in finding a bigger, stronger partner," said WinWholesale president and CEO Rick Schwartz.

In discussing their decision to sell to WinWholesale, Jim Johnson stated, "The decision to sell Midway Supply to WinWholesale was based primarily on WinWholesale's business model. Midway Supply was a 51-year old company that had developed a very strong market presence with loyal customers, great vendors and a group of very dedicated and capable employees. The WinWholesale group of companies gives all of these stakeholders the opportunity to continue and offers partial ownership to some of Midway's people."

WINWHOLESALE ANNOUNCES AGREEMENT TO ACQUIRE NOLAND COMPANY

DAYTON, OH, April 12, 2005 -- WinWholesale, one of the nation's largest industrial wholesale distributors, announced today that it has signed an agreement to merge with Noland Company .... Full Story ( Adobe pdf; opens in new window)

2004 Wholesaler Of The Year: WinWholesale Thrives On The Spirit Of Opportunity

By Jim Olsztynski of Supply House Times

Its unique business model pays off in efficiency and profits.

WinWholesale top executives (from left): CFO Jack Johnston, President & CEO Rick Schwartz, COO Jack Osenbaugh.

"President & CEO Rick Schwartz winced at the term as if it was chalk screeching across a blackboard. I didn’t use the word in a literal context, but it’s common parlance among industry citizens to describe the WinWholesale organization as a “franchise” operation. Schwartz wishes we’d all stop.

“Equity partners is a better term,” he insisted. “Franchise implies there are fees tied to revenue, and there’s not. Our presidents have more autonomy than franchisees in how they operate. Franchises have lower stature. Our companies are true business partners.”

The companies he refers to at last count numbered 433 spread across 40 states and eight industries. (See “Win Group of Companies” box.) Better not refer to them as branches in the CEO’s presence, either. Each is a separate corporation in which the individual presidents have a substantial equity stake. It’s the only organization of its kind in the PHCP industry, and maybe anywhere else as far as we know.

“Our unique business model is the key to our success. It drives our growth and inspires our management,” said Schwartz. "

Olsztynski, Jim. "2004 Wholesaler Of The Year: WinWholesale Thrives On The Spirit Of Opportunity". Supply House Times Nov 2004 <Full Story> (Opens in new window)

Switching Focus

"WinWholesale, which oversees and assists more than 430 wholesale firms that operate as independent local WinWholesale companies in partnership with Primus, based in Dayton, Ohio, is in the midst of a management restructuring that switches the focus from individual industries to regions."      " WinWholesale Restructuring A Work In Progress ". Supply House Times . Feb 2004. <Full Story> ( opens in new window)

THE FIRE WITHIN

" Somewhere deep in the belly of every electrical supply business burns the fire of entrepreneurism..... Winlectric fuels these flames by offering local ownership stakes to market-savvy entrepreneurs..."      Lucy, Jim. "The Fire Within". Electrical Wholesaling. July 2003. <http://ewweb.com/mag/electric_fire_within/index.html/> (opens http://www.ewweb.com in new window)

Quiet Giant

"... Primus should impress anybody, no matter what the industry. It's average annual growth has been 10 percent a year, and it's sales in 2002 were more than $1 billion."     Williams, Geoff. "Quiet Giant". Ohio Business 200 (The Top 200 Companies in Ohio). Issue 3 2003. <Full Article> (pdf file opens in new window)

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