In a move to build its business in the residential and commercial audio, video and broadcast market segments, Communications Supply Corp. (CSC), Carol Stream, Ill., has completed the acquisition of Liberty Wire & Cable Inc.
Liberty Wire & Cable, based in Colorado Springs, Colo., has approximately 130 employees and provides connectivity and infrastructure products to both the residential and commercial professional audio video markets. Liberty Wire & Cable’s range of products include interconnects, cable assemblies, speaker cable, specialized control and lighting systems cable, coax, security, data and telecommunications products, fiber-optic cable, patch panels, termination and cable management systems.
The company has three locations, its headquarters in Colorado Springs, a distribution and sales office in Charlotte, N.C.; and a fabrication and assembly operation in Phoenix. CSC plans to keep all three locations open, said Steve Riordan, CSC’s president and chief executive officer.
Riordan said the acquisition gives CSC access to new customer vertical markets in the residential and commercial audio and video broadcast markets, rounding out a product portfolio that supports network convergence; voice, data, security and now audio and video solutions.
"It’s a big entrée into the residential home theater marketplace as well as the commercial A/V marketplace," he said.
Riordan said the acquisition would provide good product pull-through for both Liberty and CSC.
"It will be a great opportunity to sell (Liberty) customers our structured cabling product, while also bringing their audio/video product into our customer base where there’s opportunity," he said. "We’ll be able to sell their products, which are a little more geared toward the residential/commercial space into our structured-cabling private network government space, and we’ll be able to sell our structured cabling wire and cable products into their customer base as well." CSC will use its million square feet of warehouse infrastructure to bring local inventory to local markets, he said.
Riordan said the products CSC and Liberty carry are closely related and have slightly different characteristics. "The product is slightly different, but getting access to the vertical markets, you need to have the sales organization that really understands those customers and knows how to service them," he said. "Their customer requirements are a little different from our commercial enterprise private network."
The addition of Liberty Wire & Cable brings the number of CSC full-service branch locations across the United States to 32. Liberty distribution centers in Colorado and North Carolina will continue to service Liberty customers globally.
Liberty Wire & Cable, led by Andy Bergdoll, president and general manager, will continue to operate under its current management team. Bergdoll and the Liberty management team have made a significant equity investment in CSC.
"Both CSC and Liberty share the same passion for providing world-class customer service while also maintaining highly spirited and entrepreneurial cultures," said Bergdoll. "Our customers will continue to be supported by the same highly motivated and customer focused team they’ve grown to depend on with the added national resources that CSC provides. The combination of CSC and Liberty will enhance our collective ability to expand our market share within our core segments."
CSC distributes low-voltage network infrastructure and industrial wire and cable products. CSC is listed as the 15th largest distributor on Electrical Wholesaling’s 2005 Top 200 distributors listing.