Viking buys Badger

Viking Electric Supply, Inc., St. Paul, Minn., bought Badger Electric Supply Corp., Oshkosh, Wis., expanding Viking Electric's coverage in Wisconsin."We're

Doug Chandler

Nov. 1, 2003

Viking Electric Supply, Inc., St. Paul, Minn., bought Badger Electric Supply Corp., Oshkosh, Wis., expanding Viking Electric's coverage in Wisconsin.

"We're just strengthening ourselves in our trade territory," says Viking Electric's President Jim Schacker. Viking Electric's nearest location to Oshkosh is Wausau, Wis., about 100 miles away. "It's just a logical extension of that business," he says.

Badger Electric Supply will continue to operate under its own name for the current time with Conrad Braun, Badger Electric Supply's previous owner, continuing as manager, Schacker said. The acquisition gives Viking Electric a total of 14 branches.

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.