With an estimated $63.27 billion in North American sales, Electrical Wholesaling estimates the Top 200 distributors controlled approximately 63% of sales through electrical distributors in North America. Click here to see the 50 largest distributors in the listing.
According to EW estimates, these 200 companies employ at least 58,000 employees and run at least 6,409 North American branches. The employee and branch data include an estimate for Sonepar’s employee count in North America and do not include employee counts for Anixter, Grainger or Fastenal because these companies do not break out employee data by their electrical segments.
It’s interesting to note that Fastenal Inc., Winona, Minn., which depends on sales of electrical products for 4.7% of its $3.96 billion in 2016 sales, has almost as many branch locations (2,320 locations in North America as the five largest full-line electrical distributors combined (3,063 locations) — Sonepar, WESCO, Graybar, Rexel and Consolidated Electrical Distributors.
In 2016, the five largest full-line distributors in North America had an estimated $32.65 billion in combined revenue and operated an estimated 3,063 branches. According to Electrical Wholesaling sales data, these five companies account for no less 33% of an estimated $99.78 billion-plus in 2016 electrical sales in the United States and Canada.
On the global stage, Sonepar and Rexel, the two largest electrical distributors in the world operated more than 4,800 locations, had more than 70,000 employees and did an estimated $34.83 billion in sales in dozens of countries (Rexel – 32 countries; Sonepar – 44 countries). Check out the chart on the next page for the sneak preview of the 50 largest distributors of electrical supplies.
