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WESCO in talks to sell Fife

May 1, 2003
WESCO Distribution, Inc., Pittsburgh, Pa., is in talks with a potential suitor to sell a majority stake in Fife Electric Co., Novi, Mich., and to make

WESCO Distribution, Inc., Pittsburgh, Pa., is in talks with a potential suitor to sell a majority stake in Fife Electric Co., Novi, Mich., and to make it a minority-owned business. WESCO would retain a minority interest.

Fife's new controlling owner would be a minority distributor from the Detroit area. Sources at WESCO and Fife declined to name the company before the deal is finalized, which could happen within the next month.

The proposed sale is part of an initiative to boost involvement by minority-owned businesses and to help WESCO's customers meet their targets for purchasing from minority-owned firms, said Roy Haley, president of WESCO. "I have routinely asked (customers) what one or two things we could do to assist them in meeting their own internal objectives," he said. Many said help finding a "highly professional way to source from full-fledged, legitimate, minority-owned businesses" would help, Haley said.

The deal will be reviewed by the Michigan Minority Business Development Council (MMBDC), a private non-profit organization that promotes minority business enterprises. "The MMBDC has very defined rules and requirements for being a fully certified minority distributor; we've got to meet all of those tests," said Haley. "We've already had a fair amount of legal work done in anticipation of that."

The Fife management team is closely involved and supportive of the sale, said Dale Ritchie, sales manager for Fife Electric, which WESCO acquired in1995. WESCO has made minority business issues a focal point over the past couple of years. The company hosts seminars on the subject, distributes a special catalog highlighting the work of minority businesses and has a mentoring program focused on minority issues.

About the Author

Doug Chandler | Senior Staff Writer

Doug has been reporting and writing on the electrical industry for Electrical Wholesaling and Electrical Marketing since 1992 and still finds the industry’s evolution and the characters who inhabit its companies endlessly fascinating. That was true even before e-commerce, LED lighting and distributed generation began to disrupt so many of the electrical industry’s traditional practices.

Doug earned a BA in English Literature from the University of Kansas after spending a few years in KU’s William Allen White School of Journalism, then deciding he absolutely did not want to be a journalist. In the company of his wife, two kids, two dogs and two cats, he spends a lot of time in the garden and the kitchen – growing food, cooking, brewing beer – and helping to run the family coffee shop.

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