Since November, many have asked “What’s Richard Worthy going to do?” since he was no longer affiliated with USESI. While many postulated that he would seek to acquire distributors and attempt to replicate his efforts with Sonepar and USESI, instead, the New England area is buzzing about his latest involvement in the electrical industry.
As some may recall, in late September 2010 we posted commentary entitled “A Worthy Change”. Over the past few days a couple of people have posted comments with “Haha retire, he’s back…Round 3, ding ding” and “Who’s Worthy in the ring with now?”
And, according to a number of distributors in the marketplace and some manufacturers, and confirmed by an email from Legrand dated June 5, he is joining with Marty Mesale, formerly of Yusen Associates / Vanguard Lighting (a lighting agency of Yusen) and a former colleague of Richard’s, in forming a regional rep firm called Electrical Solutions (not to be confused with Electrical Solutions, an industry publication). The firm starts representing the Legrand package (Pass & Seymour, Wiremold, WattStopper) on July 5th.
Reportedly many other rep firms (regional ones) felt that interviewing for the line was merely “window dressing” and that the highest levels of Legrand NA were involved in the decision making (and there are prior relationships there also.) Regardless, this is a major move for Legrand.
We’ve heard varying levels of Richard’s involvement, from merely financial support to some level of activity (time will tell), but reportedly there was some concern regarding distributor acquisition (company and possibly people) involvement.
From talking with distributors, many are taking a “wait and see” approach and seeking additional Legrand assurances or alternative means of doing business with Legrand. Due to prior involvement in the New England, and specifically, the Boston marketplace, many are skeptical of Richard. And reportedly other reps are somewhat concerned about Richard’s sales recruitment techniques and the corresponding increase in sales compensation.
Electrical Solutions becomes the agency of record effective July 5. Distributors feel this is a gamble for Legrand, going to a new agency with limited resources, but Legrand may be banking on the strength of its brand names with end-users / customers.
Only time will tell if New England is ready or if this will be a Leviton, Hubbell and Cooper Wiring Device (and others) sales opportunity.
Regional Agents
This new regional agency brings up a different issue … are “super regional” agencies good for distributors? for manufacturers? There are some in the industry (Fox Rowden, Casey Sales, Ewing Foley to name a few.) Manufacturers may feel it is a cost-effective (easy) way to cover a broad territory; some feel leveraged into giving someone the line for a new geographic area as they don’t want to disappoint them when the rep is important to the manufacturer in another area.
Some regional distributors feel there can be better alignment; others, and this is line and rep dependent, comment that the rep may not be as “in touch” with each local market that they are in.) Are super-regional rep firms a trend for the future? Will they help manufacturers align with national chains and super-regional distributors and therefore corner the market on a significant percentage of the industry’s volume for key manufacturers?
And then again, perhaps New England is Richard’s jumping off point to a broader expansion initiative?
38 Comments
Makes me wonder about Legrand. Word is that they needed to protect WattStopper from lighting agents and packages. Smells like desperation, or ultimate friendship, to me.
We buy from many reps and many are personal friends, but we don’t trust many of them with our customers, it’s built into the model. They don’t represent all of the lines we sell, so they need to sell those lines, and sometimes to our customers, which we don’t like.
Marty’s a decent guy. For his sake I hope Richard fades into the background as “trust” and Richard don’t go into the same sentence here in the Boston area. We’ll be extra cautious of any interactions with them and we all know how lack of rep interaction affects purchases from a supplier.
Typical Electrical Industry
This guy leaves a stink wherever he goes, and people still follow him
It is buyer be wary… just about all situations are that way now days. You just never know what will happen.
We’ve dealt with Richard before and it was a straight up business deal with no problems that we recall.
When I think of a really bad deal, I think Obama.
unbelievable. over the next year i’d expect ramifications for p&s. I expected better from John Selldorf
Sonepar has built a $8+ billion company on the backbone Richard & his team established. USESI is likely the top performer within CED. Yeah, that definitely stinks…if you’re the competition.
Not everybody follows him. Just the top people. But if you pay your top people and give them the tools to succeed, that’s typically not a concern.
MVP is that you? Whoever you are, do you honestly believe your hyper-spun propaganda? If Richard & his team were able to create such value for Sonepar, private equity investors or lastly CED then why didn’t the party last with any of them?
Not Matt. No propaganda. Just looking at the facts. They publish the annual data. Everyone can see the growth at those companies while he was at the helm.
But if you want to disclose yourself, we can compare historical growth rates. Unless you’re Jay P, Bill E or Walt R; in which case, congrats on the fine job you’ve done over the past decade-plus! Those guys can throw stones at anyone. But they don’t…which probably contributes to what they are & what they’ve built.
All the best,
WB
As an impartial observer I see that passions run strong on both sides of this issue. WB – Did Richard & CO create a profitable business in USESI? While one can certainly buy (and brag) about top line growth rates and the publishing of same in mags like TED & EW, one must wonder what the bottom line looked like at USESI based on the forced sale by the PE investors to CED and then CEDs divorce from RW and many of his top managers a few years thereafter. After all, unless you are looking to quickly roll up a bunch of business and turn them over, top line growth is not nearly as important as bottom line growth. CED tends to keep people who make them money. Regardless, nobody can dismiss the lasting success of Sonepar USA which began with RW at the helm.
Was built on sonepars MONEY ANYONE CAN BUY AND RUN A SUCCESFULL SUPPLY HOUSE .If somebody starts with nothing and builds it with hard work not acquisitions that is something.
Richard and MVP are on the move, I think we’ll hear about them buying up the mid-west region.
would be interesting to see what manufacturers think when Richard buys a distributor
Hey all you Richard Worthy haters out there, gather around. Certainly you are jealous that you didn’t think up all the buys that Richard did. He did and made some money.
So this is still the USA where you can go and make money if you bring value to a buyer. You may not like the way the drum beats….but someone liked it. If the buyer screwed it up…look at Rexel and WESCO.
So get over it and grow your own business! If you don’t own a business, help it grow. Sell some value & product instead of cutting the bottom out of the market.
Must be the son of an owner
any salespeople who go to work for him should be cautious of big compensation commitments for first year. Better be able to deliver longterm, otherwise will be looking for a job for year 2 or see major change. Sometimes the grass isn’t always greener (I know)
It’s easy to grow a business when you’re using other people’s money and they don’t understand the industry. Buying at high prices made many sellers happy
Richard making his his move to the midwest region might just be where we read his next success story. this could be interesting.
Legrand fires some of their top performing reps and their North American president hires his close friend to an unprecedented multi-year rep agreement. When signed the new agency had no staff nor infrastructure and is now raiding other reps, manufacturers, and distributors to cobble together a patchwork team of anyone who will come aboard. This is one of the biggest stories in the electrical industry, the only thing people are talking about in the Northeast and this blog is the only outlet reporting on it. Has a lid been put on this story? Hello Jim Lucy?….Crickets
For any of you that are interested, the “new” rep’s website is inaccurate in stating that they are “one of New England’s largest electrical supply manufacturer representatives/agencies”. They never existed prior to the announcement of the consolidation of the Legrand package!
Wake up, New England! The announcement letter states that they will be “answering your calls and providing the absolute best customer service possible”. How are they going to do that? UN-heard of, UN-tested, UNderstaffed and OVER their heads in the six New England states. I don’t get it. I’m sure there are many distributors out there that don’t get it either.
In looking at the website located at http://www.ess-llc.us, one could be forgiven for an assumption that this is a business started out of a kid’s bedroom rather than “one of New England’s largest … agencies”. No office address, phone number or fax number given – what kind of rep agency lacks these basics? Typical hyperbole in the delusional self promotion from these guys. Even the formatting in the list of contacts’ mobile phones is haphazard and very non-professional in appearance.
Looks like they now have a toll free phone and fax number listed.
The website mentions three of the five (or is it six) lines they represent…no mention of Cablofil, PW or OnQ. ????
Please do remove the lid and share the details, we don’t all reside in the Northeast. Who has Richard named as first and second lieutenant this time around to put together the “patchwork team?”
EP team:
Jon Wells
Andrew Mesale
Russ Bizier
Charlie Kelly
Steve Distasio
Lauren Mesale
Charlie Junod (consultant P&S)
Lighting Controls staff:
Marty Mesale
Mike Kapopoulos
Jeff Duffy
Any of Richards original Sonepar or Usesi management team going to be joining forces with him again?
Looks like Mr. Selldorf and Legrand did not do their “Due Diligence” on this one for sure!
Read something online about Amp Electrical distribution services inc. Is that Richards part time gig??? His buddy toots his horn of being the CFO of the company.
Regional rep firm Electrical solutions?
Amp Electrical Distribution?
Legrand?
24 hrs in a day. wow!!!
And Richard’s sidekick, Matt Procaccini, is registered for a website for http://www.aedsi.us in http://www.whois.net – http://whois.net/whois/aedsi.us. Looks like the two are pairing up again to make acquisitions. Wonder if they’ll convert their wiring device and sensor business to Legrand?
No offence but those products sell themselves. You could have trained ZOO animals run a rep agency and sales would be consistent.
WattStopper & EWS went looking for the “Rep of the Future” and they got trained Zoo animals. Oops
aedsi/ amp electrical distribution services inc.
You couldn’t stop reading about sonepar and usesi in the early days. why the mystery with aedsi?
July 18th. No offices, no phone lines, no internet, no personnel, unable to accept orders,stil tryin to thieve personnel
his non compete was over october 2012 he is affiliated in some capacity with Legrand, amp electrical distribution and electrical solutions… and ??? let the acquisitions begin.
So is Richard CEO of amp electrical distribution the company his sidekick is CFO of? Trying to connect the dots with all the different companies.
Has Richard made any acquisitions?
congrats to Richard and MVP on the formation of Marty’s agency and team
what’s next on your plate? busy busy busy
so many questions so few answers! Is new england worthy?
Local distributor whose used Marty’s agency on numerous occasions with nothing but success. It’s amazing getting a Wattstopper quotation with a complete bill of materials and having all the optional costs revealed. It’s noticeably more competitive not coming from a lighting agent.
Customer service has been outstanding to say the least.
Wishing Marty and his team nothing but the best.
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