The show floor for the ISN Tool Dealer Expo (TDE) was a buzz with excitement as the show celebrated its 25th anniversary. With over 1,000 deals and more than $1.5 million in cash and prizes awarded throughout the show along with a special visit from professional wrestler Ric Flair, who wouldn’t be excited?
“You couldn't ask for a better party,” said Pete Peterson, ISN president. “We've got many of our top customers, and all of our top vendors are here.”
In addition to TDE celebrating 25 years, ISN as a company was celebrating its 40th anniversary. Looking ahead Peterson sees an extremely bright future, especially after ISN’s recent merger with National Oak Distributors.
“[National Oak has] got roughly about 3,000 customers, and we have 10 to 12,000 on our side,” Peterson said. “We have very little overlap in terms of what we're selling of their product to our customers and what they're selling of our product to their customers. So, we see massive growth and expansion. And so we're excited. We think there's a great opportunity for our customers, meaning the traditional tooling equipment customers, to sell more PBE, and certainly the PBE customers to embrace and sell more tooling equipment for products as well. We're here to stay.”
Better together
With the very small amount of customer overlap between National Oak and ISN, customers can only benefit from this union.
As the two join and create a broader customer base, Taveres Taylor, SVP of sales for ISN, notes how this will help make doing business even easier for their customers.
“With our current customers as it stands today, where you may be somebody's primary tool and equipment business, they may be tertiary for them on P, B, and E,” Taylor said. “But now, if they can get everything under one roof without having to cut two different [purchase orders], we want to make it a solution for them to make it easy to do business. And the customer gets a little more time back in their day.”
To learn more about the future of ISN, be sure to check out our special ISN July issue.
Product training
With over 100 vendors at the show, attendees had the opportunity to learn from each one, including four National Oak vendors. Giving distributors the opportunity to branch out into new product territory.
Many booths offered product demonstrations to showcase what their products can do. For example, at the Milwaukee Tool booth they had demos for a few new product releases, such as their latest M12 FUEL Subcompact Impact Wrenches in 1/4” and 3/8”. Attendees were able to put the new impact wrenches to the test against competing brands in a race to see how quickly and effectively the tools could remove a bolt.
What’s new?
Though learning how the tools and equipment work is important to the distributors in attendance, equally as important is bringing the latest tools and equipment onto their trucks. Their customers need any tools that will give them an edge in finishing their work faster and more efficiently.
The Tool Dealer Expo introduced hundreds of new products for the distributors to explore, including a brand new service cart for SUNEX Tools with an original design by artist Tony Squindo of a carbon-caked, oil-soaked spark plug, a new magnetic screwdriver organizer from Ernst Manufacturing, Milwaukee Tool’s M18 HOTSHOT Jump Starter, the Smoke Pro Total Tech from Redline Detection, and much more.
Peterson spoke a bit about the effect of tariffs on buying tools and equipment. He noted that initially, people were “taking their foot off the gas,” not braking, but slowing down.
“Now we're kind of seeing that at the end of the day, we’re essential,” he said. “So if you go back to COVID time, the automobile industry, because people have to travel, we were given special privileges by the government to be staying open, and so it's the same way.
“At the end of the day, I hate to say this, but whether you know a set of tools costs 200 bucks or costs 100 bucks, if your carburetor needs to be changed, or your transmission needs to be adjusted, or your A/C needs to be replaced, you're going to take it to get it fixed. So, we have to keep that in mind. Our customers are still going to buy a little bit slightly less, in terms of some of those need to have, versus want to have things, but they're going to continue to purchase.”
To view more photos from the event, check out the 2025 ISN Tool Dealer Expo photo gallery.
About the Author
Emily Markham
Editor | PTEN and Professional Distributor
Emily Markham is the editor of Professional Tool & Equipment News (PTEN) and Professional Distributor magazines. She has been writing about the automotive aftermarket since 2019, after graduating from UW-La Crosse with a bachelor's degree in English. During her first three years with Endeavor Business Media's Vehicle Repair Group, Markham also wrote for Fleet Maintenance magazine.