European electrical wholesalers and manufacturers are generally pleased with the move from individual national currencies to the new euro.
Major issues include increasing price transparency and its influence on price harmonization, cross-border sourcing and the Web's role.
“Prices will rise for a period until suppliers find their place in their markets,” said Gerry Kelly, of the Association of Electrical Distributors in the Republic of Ireland. “But this will be short-term, as the market is now open to more competition without the problems of currency conversion. The increase of information available will facilitate the sourcing of product.”
“We assume that cross-border business will increase,” said Christof Bonn, chairman of the German Electrical Wholesalers Federation, “because it will now be much easier for customers to make comparisons in one currency instead of many.”
Simon Barkes, CEO of Bemco in the United Kingdowm, expects international wholesalers to use their muscle to negotiate standard purchase prices across Europe. “We will see more evidence of this. Commodity products are an obvious target,” he said.
Joe Clark of Novar-MK Electric in the United Kingdom, agreed with this assessment, and added that on the manufacturing side, most pan-European manufacturers have been harmonizing prices over the past three years in anticipation of the euro because country-specific pricing will be unsustainable.
“As long as economical environments and the cost of doing business differ from country to country, nobody can expect prices to be the same,” added Ralf Ploenes of Panduit Europe Ltd. “The industrial market will probably be impacted most because of the dominance of multi-national players and the nondifferentiated type of products they use.”