With its recent purchase of Central Wholesale Electrical Distributors Inc., Livermore, Calif., Alameda Electrical Distributors (AED), Hayward, Calif., has expanded its geographic footprint from the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area into central California.
Alameda Electrical Distributors is now operating Central Wholesale Electrical Distributors' branches in Modesto, Salinas, Sand City and Paso Robles, and intends use the new Salinas and Modesto branches to feed nearby locations. The company now has 11 branches and before the acquisition had 2010 sales of $52 million and 107 employees.
LaRue also said the integration of the two companies has gone smoothly because he was able to keep so many of Central Wholesale's key employees; both business focus on the commercial construction, facilities and industrial markets; and because both companies operate on the Activant Eclipse distribution software.
In the not too-distant future, LaRue plans to co-locate the tool business that his company owns, California Service Tool (CST), with some of the new branches, as AED already does with some of its existing branches. LaRue's son, Craig, runs CST and is AED's vice president of marketing.