GOING GLOBAL
Although industry leaders WESCO; Graybar; GE Supply, Shelton, Conn.; and Anixter International, Glenview, Ill., have been extending their reach beyond U.S. borders for years, few smaller distributors have made the venture. Argo International Corp. is a notable exception. The industrial motor and drive wholesaler headquartered in New York built itself into a global distributor with locations in China, Europe, India and Mexico. Today, 14 of its 22 locations are outside the United States, and more than half of its $46 million in annual sales is generated from outside U.S borders.

According to responses from questions on this year’s Top 200 survey about non-U.S. locations, revenue and employees, it appears a handful of the Top 200 are venturing beyond the borders. The Reynolds Co., headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, has a service center in China; OneSource Distributors, Oceanside, Calif., reported more than $3 million in sales from a location in Mexico; and Schwing Electrical Supply Corp., Farmingdale, N.Y., noted 1 percent of its sales comes from exports.

Other distributors reporting revenue from beyond U.S. borders include Border States; Wholesale Electric Supply Co. of Houston; and wire and cable distributor A.E. Petsche Co., Arlington, Texas, which reports a sizable $27 million of its $142 million in annual sales coming from outside the United States. Two other electrical wholesalers each noted a non-U.S. location.

Interestingly, three electrical distributors built a serious presence in the United States over the last couple of decades by expanding into the country through acquisition. All three are subsidiaries of European distributors: Rexel at No. 6; Hagemeyer North America, Charleston, S.C., at No. 16; and Sonepar USA, Philadelphia, at No. 5.

FULL-LINE DISTRIBUTORS
Full-line electrical distributors, which cater only to the electrical industry, and full-line-plus distributors, which sell to other wholesale industries such as plumbing or HVAC in addition to the electrical industry, make up the bulk of the Top 200. Of the Top 200, there were 137 full-line distributors and 19 full-line-plus distributors. Collectively, they account for 83.5 percent of the Top 200’s sales.

Full-line national chains. Estimated sales of the electrical industry’s four full-line national chains — Graybar Electric, WESCO, Consolidated Electrical Distributors (CED) and GE Supply — were up from 2004’s estimated 12.1 billion to an estimated $13.9 billion. Collectively, their market share is approximately 18.6 percent of 2005’s estimated $74.3 billion electrical pie.

When adding Crescent Electric Supply Co., East Dubuque, Ill., which has locations in 25 states; Sonepar USA, with service centers in 26 states; Rexel, with branches in 29 states; and Winlectric/Noland with coverage now spanning 30 states, the four national chains and these large regional full-line distributors sell $19.6 billion in electrical products — 26 percent of total sales.

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© 2007 Penton Media, Inc.