Gexpro To Expand Presence In Southern California With Purchase Of Beacon Electric

Jan. 24, 2008
Expanding its presence in the southern California market, Gexpro, a division of Rexel, has agreed to acquire Beacon Electric Supply, San Diego.

Expanding its presence in the southern California market, Gexpro, a division of Rexel, has agreed to acquire Beacon Electric Supply, San Diego. The acquisition is expected to be completed Jan. 31.

Beacon Electric Supply will continue to operate under its same name, as a division of Gexpro. The company will report to Jim Hibberd, division president . Don Vivier, Beacon Electric Supply’s president, and Baldur Schnidler, Beacon Electric Supply’s CEO, will remain with Beacon Electric Supply for the foreseeable future.

With approximately 70 employees, two locations and almost $50 million in annual revenue, Beacon Electric Supply ranks as the 143rd largest electrical distributor, according to Electrical Wholesaling magazine’s Top 200 distributors listing.

Gexpro (then known as GE Supply) was acquired by Rexel in 2006.

While Gexpro had a presence in the San Diego market through a small 10-employee location, the acquisition will significantly expand Gexpro’s market presence, said Brad Greene, Gexpro’s vice president of human resources. “We saw this was a real market with some opportunity,” he said. “Beacon Electric is truly one of the leaders. It’s a very attractive, very well-run company. We saw this as a fantastic way to strengthen our presence in that market in a very efficient way.”

Gexpro plans to close its location in San Diego in the near future and move its 10 employees into one of the two Beacon Electric Supply locations, Greene said.

Beacon Electric Supply and Gexpro share many of the same manufacturers’ lines. The big difference is in gear lines, where Gexpro carries GE and Beacon Electric Supply carries Siemens. Gexpro/Beacon Electric Supply will continue to carry both product lines.

Beacon Electric Supply has a strong local inventory presence. Gexpro, on the other hand, did not stock much and relied on its hub in Downing, Calif., said Greene.

“We will have the best of both worlds now,” said Greene. “We have this hub, which has a significant amount of inventory that’s 24 hours away, but now we also have the Beacon local inventory presence so it really strengthens what we have there.”