Recognizing the challenges that many contractors are facing due to switchgear supply chain challenges, and that the switchgear market is changing, Electra Sales, a five location, multi-state independent electrical manufacturer rep, that is an ESOP, brought on a switchgear line to support contractors in north Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and parts of Louisiana and Mississippi.

Electra Sales to Represent High Power Products

According to a press release, this month started the new relationship, The press release shared:

“Electra Sales announced its new partnership with High Power Products for representation across North Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Northern Mississippi, and Northwest Louisiana. The partnership combines High Power Products’ US-made low- and medium-voltage power distribution equipment with Electra Sales’ deep regional relationships and technical sales expertise.

Founded in 2015 in Huber Heights (Dayton), Ohio, High Power Products designs and manufactures custom-engineered low and medium-voltage switchgear, transformers, and Arcteq arc flash protection systems. HPP delivers some of the fastest lead times in the industry — cutting traditional schedules in half — through vertically integrated fabrication, lean production, and a custom-engineering team that turns shop drawings in under a day.

“High Power Products is exactly the kind of line our customers have been asking for — domestically built switchgear and transformers, custom-engineered to spec, and available on a timeline that actually matches today’s project schedules,” said Wayne Goodwin, Vice President of Marketing at Electra Sales. “Add Arcteq arc flash quench protection on top of that, and we’re giving our distributors, contractors, and end-users a serious answer for data centers, power plants, industrial facilities, and every critical project in between.”

“We’re eager to put Electra Sales’ extensive local market relationships to work for High Power Products,” said Grant Willoughby, Sales Engineer at High Power Products. “Their nearly five decades of industry experience and the trust they’ve built with distributors, contractors, and specifying engineers across the South-Central US make them the ideal partner to bring our switchgear, transformers, and Arcteq arc flash protection to the projects that need them most.”

About High Power Products

For those unfamiliar with High Power Products, they are a US-based manufacturer of low- and medium-voltage distribution switchgear, transformers, and Arcteq arc flash quenching systems. Headquartered in Huber Heights (Dayton), Ohio, the company specializes in custom-engineered solutions for data centers, healthcare, industrial, OEM and integration, oil and gas, power plants, rail and transit, renewable energy, steel mills, and water/wastewater treatment applications. More information is available at highpowerproducts.com.

Electra Sales and Switchgear … the New Opportunity

Given that HPP is not a “name” brand and that few manufacturer reps carry a switchgear line, I reached out to Wayne and asked some questions:

• What is contractor feedback on utilizing / recommending a “non-recognizable” name in the data center / industrial space?
  • Because of the Data Center boom affecting the entire electrical industry from an infrastructure standpoint it is becoming widely accepted and understood that independent switchgear manufacturers are very viable option to fulfill capacity constraints on lead time and delivery for all projects.
• Distributor feedback, especially since it is competing with their branded gear line?
  • The large OEMs such as ABB, Schneider/Square D, Siemens, and Eaton are creating collaborative working arrangements with independent switchgear manufacturers because they know about 50% of the market is going to go to them and they are competing for that breaker business to supply those Teir II manufacturers. So, distributers who Rep a “Big 4” breaker brand are following suit in this understanding. The relationship is 2 sided: Competitor / Customer with collaboration. The collaboration comes in assistance from major OEM’s in purchasing contracts for breakers and testing / certification compliance assistance as well as capacity overflow assistance.
• Is HPP an integrator / assembler or a true manufacturer?
  • High Power Products designs, manufactures and assembles both low and medium voltage switchgear.
• Does HPP have other reps? Are they seeking more?
  • HPP has 5 total Rep firms covering 21 states in the Ohio Valley, Midwest, West Coast, Pacific Northwest, and Mid-South Regions. The plan is to absorb our recent growth and add more Reps in 2027 in the Northeast and Southeast Atlantic Coastal areas.
• Why HPP versus some of the other “non-Big 4” switchgear lines for Electra Sales?
  • Most (but not all) of the major switchgear manufacturers have “direct” relationships with their distributors, meaning they do not utilize a manufacturer rep for those products. High Power Products offers us the ability to help our distributor and contractor customers when their lead time needs exceed what is available from their primary gear line.
• What, if any, challenges are you expecting from distributors?
  • We do not anticipate any challenges. We view this as an opportunity to help support, not compete.
• Will Electra Sales also be calling on engineers to get specs / specs changed to “or equal”?
  • We will. In fact, we recently created a new “Contractor Specialist” position, which is responsible for calling on contractors, engineers, and end users. The new employee in that role is Eric Zillinger, who joined the Electra Sales team after nearly 14 years with the Graybar Dallas District where he managed new construction inside sales team. His experience and long-term relationships with contractors, engineers, and end users open doors for our manufacturers that not everyone can.
• Knowing that Electra Sales embraces the principles of NEMRA’s Rep of the Future, how do you think this helped you in “wining” representation?
  • Our company’s product expertise, demand generation efforts (see Eric above), and marketing acumen each played a role in helping Electra Sales win this representation opportunity. Rep of the Future continues to serve as a North Star for our company as we approach our 50-year anniversary next year.
• How will this help you in generating demand to achieve HPP’s goals?
  • We are already well on our way to generating the demand they’re looking for. We’ve already launched an introduction marketing campaign with email, social, trade press, and more to come. So far, we’ve presented HPP over a dozen new opportunities.

Take Aways

• Congratulations to Electra Sales in winning representation of HPP. The product category is “out of the box” for most reps, however, it is slowly becoming more prevalent. Many companies similar to HPP have historically sold to a narrow customer base and direct. The data center market created the supply chain challenges of today and opportunities for these companies … and reps.
• Winning these types of lines, and engineered lines in general, requires a rep to be focused on demand generation. Distributors serve a role here; however, it is typically a service and credit role unless they are seeking a solution for a customer who is suffering from a backlog. Research that Channel Marketing Group has conducted shared that 40% of switchgear sales are spec, 40% are “same brand replacement,” and 20% are contractor discretion. Presuming this holds in Electra Sales’ territory, they are pursing the 20% while also dipping into the “same brand replacement” segment based upon product availability and Electra Sales’ contractor relationships.
• While some switchgear companies may eventually “lean” on a distributor to support them, the reality is that there is always someone in the market who is willing to accept the order to support their customer.
• The 5 Pillars of the Rep of the Future are Product, Planning, Technology, Demand Generation, and marketing. Pursuing a product category like switchgear, and being successful with it, requires that a rep utilize four of the five pillars (the Technology element ties to operational excellence, infrastructure, and marketing). The platform enables winning of quality lines.

Congratulations to the Electra Sales and High Power Products teams.

If you are a rep, are you pursuing a similar line? Would it be additive to your line card? What are some other similar manufacturers? Other product categories to expand into?