NSi Expands Into Time Switches And Photocontrols With Purchase Of Tork

Sept. 22, 2006
NSi Industries LLC, Huntersville, N.C., will offer time switches and photocontrols for lighting with the purchase of Tork Inc., Mount Vernon, N.Y.

NSi Industries LLC, Huntersville, N.C., will offer time switches and photocontrols for lighting with the purchase of Tork Inc., Mount Vernon, N.Y.

An electrical industry icon for many years, Tork was founded in 1922 and run by the White family. NSi bought the privately owned company from Victoria White, the widow of Dorset White, who led the company for many years.

NSi sells electrical lugs, mechanical and compression connectors, split bolts, neutral and grounding products, modular power distribution blocks under the Connnector-Blok name, and Polaris preinsulated connectors. The company also offers a wide range of wire-management products, including cable ties, panel channel, wire marking and unique and time-saving tools and accessories.

NSi has approximately 300 employees and manufacturing locations in Mexico City, and now, Mount Vernon. The company ships inventory from 13 regional warehouses to distributors in all 50 states.

NSi appointed Sam Shankar, former president of Tork, as president of the Tork division of NSi Industries. He will report to Axel Rasmussen, NSi’s president and CEO.

“NSi is excited by the addition of Tork to the NSi family,” said Rasmussen. “The addition of Tork’s group of products as well as its strength with consulting engineers, engineering, design and manufacturing capabilities is a perfect compliment to NSi’s family of products, marketing and merchandising strengths.”

Shankar sees plenty of synergies between the two companies. “They have a lot of lighting products, and we have lighting control products,” he said. “They have a lot of everyday products, which we don’t have. They are excellent in marketing. We’re excellent in engineering. Together, we will become a bigger factor and more important to a distributor and a rep.” He said he has received a lot of phone calls complimenting Tork on the acquisition.

Randall Parian, NSi’s vice president of sales, said now that the acquisition is complete, NSi’s next step is to consolidate the rep networks of both firms. “It’s going to be a thorough evaluation,” he said. “I will interview the existing NSi reps and the existing Tork reps and make my decision based on who best meets our future needs, i.e. who has made an investment toward their future with ‘spec’ guys. It’s not necessarily going to be cut-and-dried. We’ll take into consideration conflicts of interest.”

Both companies each have about 40 manufacturers’ reps. They currently share four reps. The NSi reps that sell lines such as Intermatic and Grasslin Controls and the Tork reps that sell lines such as Ilsco and Penn Union have some product conflicts.

Parian plans to start interviewing manufacturers’ reps for NSi and Tork this week and complete the process by Nov. 30. “There will be some tough decisions all the way around, from the reps’ standpoint and our standpoint,” he said, noting that both NSi and Tork have had many long-standing personal relationships with their reps and have never been known to change representation without plenty of careful thought.