Despite the uncertain economic outlook, the nation’s largest electrical distributors have continued to invest in their businesses in a big way. Many opened up new branch locations, and some upgraded or replaced their ERP systems. Let’s take a look at some of these initiatives.
NEW BRANCHES & FACILITY RENOVATIONS
In addition to opening a new location in Gastonia, NC, Atlantic Coast Electric Supply, Summerville, SC, acquired the single-location Carolina Electric Supply Co., Rock Hill, SC, and ran its second annual customer incentive trip promotion during 2024. The company plans on taking 200 customers to Las Vegas in June 2025.
Border States Electric, Fargo, ND, made some changes in its branch coverage of the North Carolina market to take advantage of its new 135,000-sq-ft location in Charlotte, NC. Its Mooresville, and Gastonia, NC, locations closed and those towns are now being serviced out of the Charlotte location.
Other big branch news at Border States is the new Tampa, FL, location that opened in April 2024. Tom Nelson, corporate communications director, said the new facility services one of the company’s utility alliance customers.
“In anticipation of severe storms and hurricanes to that area of the United States, this branch has storm stock on hand in its 50,000-sq-ft-warehouse and ¾-acre-yard and can provide service as storms hit,” he wrote in his response. “This location also has after hours to get our customer’s material shipped and delivered, so they can react to storms in time to help their customers. The fleet consists of one flatbed semi and one straight-bed box truck. Extraordinary efforts by Tampa employee-owners, companywide volunteers and the Crisis Response team were given to assist our customer when Hurricane Milton hit Florida in Oct. 2024. Border States worked directly with our customer on storm readiness and proactively drew resources from another company, stationing resources in Jacksonville, FL, ahead of the storm with a mobile construction trailer to deploy as needed once the storm passed.”
Coburn Supply Co., Beaumont, TX opened new locations in Jackson and Mt. Juliet, TN. The company enjoyed a +28% revenue increase in 2024 because of large projects with strategic customers and selling in non-traditional electrical markets, according to Richard Booth, Electrical Division manager.
D&S Electrical Supply Co., Pocatello, ID, is planning to remodel its headquarters.
Dakota Supply Group, Fargo, ND, opened locations in Eau Claire WI; Spirit Lake IA; Douglas, WY; and Butte, MT. The company also is increasing its focus on procurement and logistics efficiency, according to Matt Judge, DSG financial analyst.
Dulles Electric Supply Corp., Sterling, VA, will be breaking ground on two new facilities this year that will replace existing locations, according to John Milotte, general manager.
Elliott Electric Supply, Nacogdoches, TX, has relied on new branches to fuel growth for many years, but the past 18 months have been particularly busy for the company on this front, with new locations in Doraville, GA; Yukon, OK; Laredo, TX; Fort Collins, CO; Jacksonville, FL; Charlotte, NC; Kansas City, MO; Durant, OK; El Paso, TX; Cookeville, TN; Prescott Valley, AZ; Jonesboro, AR; Centennial, CO; and Colorado Springs, CO. Elliott Electric Supply’s new branches in Jacksonville and Charlotte are its first locations in those states. The company closed a location Stuttgart, AR.
Facility Solutions Group, Austin, TX, added branches in Cincinnati, OH; West Palm Beach, FL; and Nashville, TN. Leon Mowandia, COO-Lighting & Distribution, said the company is entering in its 43rd year as a national lighting distributor. “While we have served national multi-site accounts along with many local markets coast to coast over the years, we are embarking on a new organizational change to centralize our enterprise,” he said in his Top 100 response. “This exciting change will ensure better service for our customers, consistent support of our manufacturer vendors, while capitalizing on our talent around the country. As one national enterprise, we will create scalability, increase capacity, and ensure our clients have a world class experience in lighting design, MRO lighting supply, and national lighting fixture package services nationwide.”
Fromm, Reading, PA, launched a new services division, FrommConnect, which offers value-added services to the industrial and contractor markets. “We expect this business to grow as the trade gap rises and companies are losing in-house expertise yet need to remain profitable and efficient,” said Michael Evanko, VP of marketing, in his survey response.
G&G Electric Supply, New York, NY, celebrated its 110th anniversary and is “evaluating and modifying its operations with AI or back-office programs to handle the mundane tasks of A/R & A/P invoice processing,” said Joe Fusco, the company’s president.
Graybar Electric Co., St. Louis, MO, recently celebrated some big milestones. Tim Sommer, the company’s manager of corporate communications said that in 2024, Graybar celebrated 95 years of employee ownership and that this year it’s celebrating 100 years since it became an independent company in 1925. The company made several acquisitions over the past 18 months, including Blazer Electric Supply, Colorado Springs, CO, and Power Supply Co., Chattanooga, TN, an electric utility specialist it acquired through its Cape Electrical Supply subsidiary.
The company was also named a “U.S. Best Managed Company” by Deloitte Private and The Wall Street Journal last year.
Inline Electric Supply Co., Huntsville, AL, opened up new locations in Clarksville, TN, and Pensacola, FL and acquired Key Electric Supply in Panama City, MO.
K/E Electric Supply Co., Mt. Clemens, MI, is modernizing an existing 60,000-sq-ft warehouse adjacent to its headquarters.
Lonestar Electric Supply, Houston, TX, made headlines over the past year with its move into the Nashville, TN, market, and new Texas locations in Conroe, McAllen and McKinney, TX. The company crossed the $1-billion sales plateau with a 30% increase in sales from 2023 and 2024. It hit this mark just 10 years since being founded in 2015.
Other distributors opening new branches over the past year included Main Electric Supply Co., Santa Ana, CA (Sacramento, CA); Rural Electric Supply Cooperative (RESCO), Middleton, WI (new warehouses in Stanley, WI, and Roundup, MT); and CEEUS, West Columbia, SC (Glenn Allen, VA).
ERP INVESTMENTS
Dennis Cogan the VP of sales-Carolina Group for Electrical Equipment Co., Raleigh, NC, said the company’s new ERP systems is now two years old and that they are starting to see the benefits and flexibility of bolt-ons such as AI.
Independent Electric Supply, Billerica, MA, is adding new AI features to its ERP system that salespeople can utilize.
Jackson Electric Supply, Jacksonville, FL, implemented the Innovo system, which Larry Swink, company president says integrates seamlessly with its existing Eclipse platform and GPS technology. “This upgrade allows us to provide instant proof of delivery (PODs), real-time delivery tracking, and pending delivery notifications — giving our customers greater visibility and confidence in every order,” he said.
Nassau National Cable, Great Neck, NY, upgraded its CRM and order management systems to make its order processing more efficient.
Elliott Muller, the CFO of Y&B Electric Supply, Brooklyn, NY, said the company is building out a BI (business intelligence) platform to help drive business decisions. “We also hired a CFO and are starting to build out a commercial sales team; diversified our vendor base and are taking advantage of what AD has to offer.”
ANNIVERSARIES
Congratulations to the following companies for celebrating major anniversaries: American Electric Supply, Corona, CA (40th anniversary); C. N. Robinson Lighting /CNR Lighting, Baltimore, MD (155th anniversary); Clayton Engineering Co., Wheeling, WV (78th anniversary); Gross Electric, Toledo, OH (115th anniversary); O’Neil Electric Supply, Toronto, Ontario (60th anniversary); Tri-State Utility Products, Alpharetta, GA. (50th anniversary); and Toole & Rose Supply, Carrollton, KY (37th anniversary).
About the Author
Jim Lucy
Editor-in-Chief
Over the past 40-plus years, hundreds of Jim’s articles have been published in Electrical Wholesaling and Electrical Marketing newsletter on topics such as the impact of new competitors on the electrical market’s channels of distribution, energy-efficient lighting and renewables, and local market economics. In addition to his published work, Jim regularly gives presentations on these topics to C-suite executives, industry groups and investment analysts.
He recently launched a new subscription-based data product for Electrical Marketing that offers electrical sales potential estimates and related market data for more than 300 metropolitan areas, and in 1999 he published his first book, “The Electrical Marketer’s Survival Guide” for electrical industry executives looking for an overview of key market trends.
While managing Electrical Wholesaling’s editorial operations, Jim and the publication’s staff won several Jesse H. Neal awards for editorial excellence, the highest honor in the business press, and numerous national and regional awards from the American Society of Business Press Editors. He has a master’s degree in Communications and a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, N.J. (now Rowan University).