In one of the largest acquisitions in years, Rexel has purchased Platt Electric Supply, Beaverton, Ore., the largest regional chain in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states.
Platt Electric Supply has 1,000 employees at 111 branches in seven states and posted 2011 sales of €310 million in (US$394 million). The company was ranked #13 on Electrical Wholesaling's 2011 Top 200 listing. Platt has for years been a powerhouse in the Pacific Northwest and over the past few year has expanded into the Mountain States, including Idaho, Nevada Montana and Utah. It has 31 locations in Oregon; 36 branches in Washington; 21 branches in California; and recently opened a regional distribution center in Salt Lake City, Utah. According to information on its website, Rexel had two branches in Oregon, one in Washington, and 23 in California, before the acquisition.
A Rexel press release announcing the acquisition said Jeff Baker, president of Platt Electric Supply, will become president and CEO of Platt Electric Supply and will become V.P. of Rexel Inc. He will assume an enhanced leadership role on several key initiatives for the broader Rexel business in the U.S. The transaction, subject to customary conditions, should close in early July and Platt Electric Supply's operations should be consolidated from July, 2012. Details
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Jim Lucy Blog
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Jim Lucy has been wandering through the electrical market for more than 30 years, most of the time as an editor for Electrical Wholesaling, Electrical Marketing newsletter and CEE News. During that time he and the editorial team for the publications have won numerous national awards for their coverage of the electrical business. He showed an early interest in electricity, when as a youth he had an idea for a hot dog cooker. Unfortunately, the first crude prototype malfunctioned and the arc nearly blew him out of his parents' basement. Before becoming an editor for Electrical Wholesaling magazine and Electrical Marketing, he earned a BA degree in journalism and a MA in communications from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, NJ., which is formerly best known as the site of the 1967 summit meeting between President Lyndon Johnson and Russian Premier Aleksei Nikolayevich Kosygin, and now best known as the New Jersey state college that changed its name in 1992 to Rowan University because of a generous $100 million donation by N.J. zillionaire industrialist Henry Rowan. Jim is a Brooklyn-born Jersey Guy happily transplanted in the fertile plains of Kansas for the past 20 years.