Last week I had several business meetings in New Jersey so I took advantage of my trip by stopping by Robert Manetta's new warehouse.

I invited Tom Freund from Oxford to join me because his office is on the way to Robert's.

By way of full disclosure, Robert and I have been friends for a long time and I believe my very first blog entry quoted him. But whether he is my friend or not, I would still be amazed with his new warehouse.

I think it is 118,000 or 120,000 square feet, but it is clearly big enough to park an airplane in.

There is room to park four mobile trailers inside, plus have staging areas, a paint room, and a crating area. And I estimate there has to be room for 20 mobile trailers behind the building. Very impressive.

Shifting gears, some of you might remember earlier this year, I predicted a number of things, including growth in Europe and consolidation in the United States.

There has been a lot of growth in Europe and there looks like there is going to be more on the horizon. AGITO has grown and expanded their mobile fleet. LBN has grown. Bastian Berkel has done wonders for Alliance and according to everything I have heard, MESA is meeting all of its service commitments.

Here in the United States, BC Technical continues to grow and buy companies and, for that matter, expand.

Oxford is hiring people across the country to represent their sales and service efforts and it is my understanding they are growing quickly. I've also heard that DirectMed Parts is growing.

I have noticed some companies are getting stronger. The reason I thought there would be consolidations is because some companies would find it difficult to hold their own in this market but Nationwide is an example of a company that is doing more than holding its own. They are expanding.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next six months!

Happy Fourth of July!