Top 50 Electrical Equipment Distributors in 2024

In the past two years alone, Sonepar or one of its subsidiaries has acquired eight large independent distributors, including most recently Echo Electric, Council Bluffs, IA; Electric Supply Center, Burlington, MA; and Madison Electric Co., Warren, Mich.; Standard Electric Co., Saginaw, Mich.; Electrozad, Windsor, Ontario; Billows Supply, Philadelphia; Sunrise Electric Supply, Addison, Ill.; and Electric Supply of Tampa, Tampa, Fla. Other national or supraregional distributors have also been active acquirers, including Rexel, which in 2023 or 2024 bought Electrical Supplies Inc., Miami; Buckles-Smith, Santa Clara, Calif.; Teche Electric, Lafayette, La.; and Talley Inc., Los Angeles, a large VDV specialist.

Graybar Electric, Consolidated Electrical Distributors, and Border States Electric also purchased several large distributors. Graybar acquired Shepherd Electric Supply, Baltimore, and Blazer Electric Supply, Colorado Springs, Colorado; CED purchased Parrish-Hare Electrical Supply, Irving, Texas; and Border States Electric acquired Dominion Electric Supply, Arlington, Virginia, and Winston Engineering, West Hollywood, California.

You may or may not notice much of a change in your local supply house if one of these large distributors buys it, because these companies very often try to keep local management and employees in place after an acquisition — and being part of a larger company can often give smaller companies access to resources to grow their business that they did not have when they were privately owned. When one of these larger chains moves into town, it can provide some tough competition for the independent companies that are still in business, especially on price. In theory, these larger companies can negotiate more lucrative discounts on volume purchases of the products they buy from electrical manufacturers, and then pass some of the savings on to customers. Many of the remaining independent electrical distributors combat this price competition by joining up with other distributors in buying/marketing groups, such as the recently merged Affiliated Distributors, Wayne, Pa., and IMARK Group, Bowie, Md., to get better prices from the electrical suppliers in those groups.

Not all other independent distributors see the growth of the largest distributors as an insurmountable obstacle. Some respondents said smaller distributors can still respond more quickly to market opportunities and may have better access to local talent.

At Inline Electric Supply, Huntsville, Ala., Bruce Summerville, president, says, “We are one of the last independent multi-unit distributors in our region of the country. I think that, along with the fact that we are 100% ESOP, gives us an advantage in recruiting new ‘A’ players to our team. The larger players we compete with will probably squeeze our margins a little, but overall I am confident that we will be able to outperform them with better and more qualified people.”

Richard Booth, electrical division manager for Coburn Supply, Beaumont, Texas, says acquisitions sometimes give larger companies an advantage in supplier relationships. “In some cases, larger companies come in with stronger supplier relationships than independent regional companies,” he wrote in his response. “That forces the smaller distributor into corners that we have to get out of. Suppliers who promised to work with you when you entered a new market are now backing out of that deal as the larger nationwide chain swallows up the competition.”