Western United Electric Supply Corp., Brighton, Colo., set the pace for productivity in a ranking of the largest electrical distributors in the country by sales per employee.
Based on the 189 distributors who furnished both a sales number and an employee count for Electrical Wholesaling's 250 Biggest listing this year, the average sales per employee came in at $523,765 for 2001, a huge jump of more than $100,000 over 2000.
The increase in sales-per-employee number can most likely be explained by the many electrical distributorships that have reduced personnel. The Top 250 electrical distributor employee count is down more than 6,500 people from last year.
The average sales per employee for the last four years was: $421,000 for 2000; $408,000 for 1999; $411,000 for 1998; and $392,000 for 1997.
A distributorship's size does not appear to be a determining factor in productivity measured by sales per employee. Three of the electrical wholesaling industry's national chains made the top 50, while other distributors on the productivity list were well distributed throughout the rest of the list.