As IMI’s sister company, Modern Distribution Management, recently reported, diversification continues to be a focus for many distributors and manufacturers in 2012.

In fact, it’s become a key strategy for survival and growth for many, who want to depend less on booms or commodity prices and more on a strong diversified base, less prone to the business cycle. For industrial distributors, popular complementary product lines include safety and jan-san.

Many diversified distributors are adding safety catalogs, for example, to gain a bigger portion of their customers’ spend. Many are also focused on expanding the expertise they hold in safety.

What opportunities exist for you in new product markets such as safety? IMI offers market demand data for more than 200 MRO/OEM product profiles. You can find the full list here.