2024’s Top 50 Electrical Distributors

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, as well as 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 super-regional distributors were active acquirers, too, 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 bought some big distributors. Graybar acquired Shepherd Electric Supply, Baltimore, and Blazer Electric Supply, Colorado Springs, Colo.; CED bought Parrish-Hare Electrical Supply, Irving, Texas; and Border States Electric acquired Dominion Electric Supply, Arlington, Va., and Winston Engineering, West Hollywood, Calif.

You may or may not see much of a change in your local supply house if one of these large distributors purchases it because these companies very often try to keep local management and employees in place after the acquisition — and being part of a larger company can often give smaller firms access to resources to grow the business that they previously did not have when they were privately owned. When one of these larger chains moves into town, they can provide some tough competition for the independents still in the market, particularly on pricing. Theoretically, these larger companies can negotiate more lucrative volume purchasing discounts for the products they buy from electrical manufacturers, and then pass some of the savings on to customers. Many of the remaining independent electrical distributors battle this price competition by banding together with other distributors in buying/marketing groups like the recently merged Affiliated Distributors, Wayne, Pa., and IMARK Group, Bowie, Md., to receive better pricing from the electrical vendors in these groups.

Not every remaining independent distributors sees the growth of the largest distributors as an insurmountable obstacle. Some respondents said smaller distributors can still react faster to market opportunities and may have better access to local talent.

At Inline Electric Supply, Huntsville, Ala., Bruce Summerville, president said, “We are one of the last multi-location independent distributors left in our area of ​​the country. My perception is that fact, along with us being a 100% ESOP, gives us an advantage in recruiting new ‘A players’ to our team. The bigger guys that we are competing with are probably going to put a bit of a squeeze on our margins, but overall I am confident that we will be able to outperform them due to having better and more qualified people.”

Richard Booth, electrical division manager for Coburn Supply, Beaumont, Texas, says the acquisitions sometimes give larger companies advantages with their vendor relationships. “Big-name companies come into play with stronger vendor relationships than an independent regional has in some cases,” he wrote in his response. “It forces the smaller distributor into corners we have to fight out of. Vendors who promised to work with you as you entered a new market now back out of that agreement when the larger national chain gobbles up the competition.”