Grainger CEO looks to global expansion

W.W. Grainger Inc., Lake Forest, Ill., is moving fast on its mission to become a more global distributor, as you can see from its recent acquistions of Acklands-Grainger Inc., Fercomat Inc., Canada's largest distributor of industrial, safety and fastener supplies through its Acklands-Grainger division, and its purchase of Fabory, a large Dutch fasteners distributor.

CEO Jim Ryan offers some interesting details on this strategy in this Seeking Alpha posting on its recent acquisition of Fabory. Grainger plans to use Fabory, which is considered Europe's "master of fasteners," as a base for future expansion. Fabory last year did approximately $350 million in sales and has more than 1,600 team members at 120 locations in 14 countries.