Sonepar USA Acquires California-based Independent Electric Supply
In one of the largest acquisitions in recent years, Sonepar USA, Philadelphia, has acquired Independent Electric Supply (IES), San Carlos, Calif. The deal gives Sonepar a solid footprint in California, one of the few major markets in the United States in which it did not have a major presence. Founded in 1976, Independent Electric Supply has 24 branches in the Northern California, the San Francisco Bay area, the Golden State's Central Valley, Central Coast, Southern California, and in Tempe, Ariz. IES also operates two specialty division houses: Independent Power System (IPS) and Independent Utility Supply (IUS). The company will continue to operate under the leadership of Ron Snow, CEO, and Tom Massip, president.
Massip said in the press release announcing the acquisition, "It's a great opportunity for our employees to become a part of a vigorous, growth-oriented organization. As is a characteristic of all acquisitions Sonepar has made over the years, we will continue to operate and market ourselves with our existing management team in place and will remain known in the markets we have served for 35-plus years as Independent Electric Supply."
Dave Gabriel, CEO of Sonepar USA, said in that press release, "This strategic acquisition provides an opportunity for Sonepar USA to expand its presence through one of the strongest regional distributors in the California market. Independent Electric Supply is a company whose organization and employee base exemplifies Sonepar's most critical characteristics of a customer-centric organization with strong local leadership and local brands."
Electrical Wholesaling's most recent Top 200 listing ranks Sonepar as the largest electrical distributor in North America, with $5.28 billion in 2010 sales and pegs Independent Electric Supply in the #18 spot with $373 million in 2010 sales. Independent Electric Supply had been one of the largest independent distributors in the Affiliated Distributors buying/marketing group.
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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.