Cooper Electric Supply Expands into Lehigh Valley, Buys Fromm Electric of Piscataway

Aug. 30, 2002
Adding to its industrial focus and picking up coverage in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, Cooper Electric/Sonepar USA completed its purchase of Fromm Electric

Adding to its industrial focus and picking up coverage in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, Cooper Electric/Sonepar USA completed its purchase of Fromm Electric of Piscataway this week.

Fromm Electric of Piscataway is a separate company from Fromm Electric of Reading, which has six locations in eastern Pennsylvania. The acquisition of Fromm Electric of Piscataway will not affect Fromm Electric headquartered in Reading, which is run by Michael Fromm. Jay Fromm ran the Piscataway location.

Fromm Electric of Piscataway, with approximately 70 employees and sales of about $35 million to $40 million, has branches in Cherry Hill, Phillipsburg and Piscataway, N.J., and Bethlehem, Pa. Three of the locations carry the Allen-Bradley franchise while the Piscataway branch is a distributor for Square D.

All four branches will operate under the Fromm name, according to Greg Griswold, president of Cooper Electric.

With the acquisition of Fromm Electric of Piscataway, Cooper now has 20 electrical supply locations. Griswold said the acquisition was appealing to Cooper Electric/Sonepar because Fromm Electric serves a different customer base that consists primarily of industrial customers and extends Cooper Electric's service area into the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania.

“Specifically for Cooper it's a perfect fit for our company,” he said. “It's an industrial business where we're mostly commercial construction. Their (Fromm's) Bethlehem and Phillipsburg branches are in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania, which is a great extension for our service area, where we currently have no coverage. We're hoping they can teach us a little on the industrial side, and we can teach them some on the commercial side.”

Matthew Venancio, a region vice president for Cooper Electric, will manage the four branches.