Electricalmarketing 419 Ew Top 200 Box 2016 595px335p 0
Electricalmarketing 419 Ew Top 200 Box 2016 595px335p 0
Electricalmarketing 419 Ew Top 200 Box 2016 595px335p 0
Electricalmarketing 419 Ew Top 200 Box 2016 595px335p 0
Electricalmarketing 419 Ew Top 200 Box 2016 595px335p 0

Top 50 Distributors Growing with Major Acquisition Campaigns and Branch Expansion

June 10, 2016
These companies, which account for an more than $33 billion in electrical sales and about 5,470 branches and 58,000 employees, were involved in most of the acquisitions of Top 200 distributors over the past two years, including ...

You can learn quite a bit about the key trends reshaping the electrical wholesaling industry by studying the 50 largest electrical distributors in Electrical Wholesaling’s Top 200 ranking (see chart below). These companies, which account for an more than $33 billion in electrical sales and about 5,470 branches and 58,000 employees, were involved in most of the acquisitions of Top 200 distributors over the past  two years, including Sonepar’s purchases of Eck Supply, QED, Grove-Madsen, and Electrical Distributors (Dallas); WESCO’s acquisitions of Hill County Electrical Supply, Needham Electric Supply and Atlanta Electrical Distributors; Rexel’s purchase of Brohl & Appell; and the  acquisition by Anixter International, Skokie, Ill., of HD Power Solutions, Atlanta, a strong player in the mainstream electrical market in some regions of the country and reportedly the largest distributor of utility products in North America. And just this week Border States Electric, Fargo, N.D., announced its intention to buy Shealy Electrical Wholesalers, West Columbia, S.C.

While the pace of consolidation has picked up, this industry won’t ever get as consolidated as distribution trades like the electronics and pharmaceutical distribution niches, where less than five distributors account for more than 80% of the sales. EW estimates that last year the five largest full-line distributors — Sonepar, WESCO, Graybar,  Rexel and Consolidated Electrical Distributors (CED) — accounted for less than 33% ($32.5 billion) of the industry’s $100-plus billion in total North American sales.

At least three of the 50 largest distributors were adding new branches, too. Graybar Electric Co., St. Louis, Mo.; Elliott Electric Supply, Nacogdoches, Texas; and City Electric Supply, Dallas, together opened several dozen branches over the past few years.