Consolidated Electrical Distributors Inc. (CED), Irving, Texas, has acquired Walters Wholesale Electric, Signal Hill, Calif., adding Walters' 26 Southern California locations to CED's estimated 500 locations nationwide.
Walters Wholesale is heavily involved in the area's residential construction market through service to electrical contractors. It has expanded of late and now boasts specialty departments in telecommunication/low voltage systems including fire and security, industrial automation, roadway/street lighting and energy services as well as residential construction.
Walters was ranked at #28 on Electrical Wholesaling's 2011 Top 200 list of the largest electrical distributors in the United States, based on unpublished 2010 sales that fell somewhere between $213 million and $300 million.
CED is certainly no stranger to Southern California. The company was founded in the state in 1957 and its headquarters until last year was in Westlake Village, Calif.
CED has been one of the electrical distribution market's most active acquirers over several decades. Acquisitions of storied companies such as Royal Wholesale and All-Phase Electric, in addition to CED's organic expansions, had already established the number of CED locations in California at more than 100, with about half of those (54) in Southern California, according to the website of CED's Southern California regional division.
Walters was founded in 1953 by Lester Walter, and is still run today by his son, John Walter, chairman and chief executive. The company has an estimated 500 employees. Its locations include a 170,000-square-foot central distribution center in Brea, Calif., with more than $15 million in inventory.