George Santayana, the Spanish philosopher said, “if we don’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it!” Our economy is certainly changing quickly, as is our industry Many of us tried fighting the DIY market when they began selling […]
Electrical distributors, manufacturer representatives, and lighting agents face a continuous challenge with project quotations … the need for speed. Contractors, and specifiers, want everything yesterday. And once they finally place an order, they want the submittal information “yesterday.” In addition […]
Since 2020 the electrical distribution industry has seen 102 (or so) distributors sell their business. Additionally, we’re seeing manufacturer representatives and lighting agents undergoing ownership transitions. In many instances it is due to lack of family business succession planning. You […]
Lately I’ve had conversations with a number of reps, distributors, and manufacturers that involve “technology” but not in the conventional sense of the tools / software but more as it relates to functionality / capability for the future, does their […]
The “go-go” days of post-Covid are gone. We’re back to pre-pandemic industry growth rates of 3-5% organic growth. Maintaining, and improving, net profitability in the face of slowing growth, increased cost structure, and stagnant (if not decreasing) margins, requires improved […]
Another week, another acquisition in the electrical distribution industry. Last week, Fields Electrical Sales, an independent manufacturer representative covering Ohio, Michigan, western Pennsylvania, and West Virginia was sold to Forward Solutions, whom you may recall acquired ElectroRep and R/B Sales […]
Acquisitions continue to transform the electrical distribution industry as evidenced by Border States acquiring Dominion Electric, Sonepar Acquiring Standard and Madison Electric, Electrical Wholesalers (a USESI operating company) acquiring ASKCO, Graybar’s Valin business acquiring Dynamic Solutions, and Rexel acquiring Talley […]
Last week’s AD / IMARK Electrical merger news was the shocker of the year. Some commented that it may be of the past 5 years whereas others have foreshadowed this by asking “In the world of consolidation, when will the […]
Last week NAED held its Women in Industry Forum. It was the largest NAED event in years. Our friend and ElectricalTrends contributor, Desiree Grace, attended the event and graciously shared her observations: “It was an electrifying 3 days for the […]
Last week, Electric Supply Center (ESC) and Sonepar’s NorthEast Electrical group announced that ESC was acquired by NorthEast. ESC, ranked last year as #98 on the EW Top 150, which would slot them around $100M, had, according to others in […]
