Top 150 Distributors Expect Industry Sales Growth to Remain Solid in 2024

The first wave of responses to Electrical Wholesaling’s  annual Top 150 survey very definitely had an air of optimism to them. Of the 40-plus distributor execs who offered a 2024 sales forecast, roughly a third of the respondents are expecting double-digit sales growth this year, and more than half are expecting growth in the industry’s right in the industry’s historical annual growth range of +5% to +9%.
While none of the respondents are expecting a recession this year, roughly 16% said the U.S. economy is now contracting and about 39% said they believe the economy will slow down in the second half of 2024.
The number of large projects underway supported the optimism of many respondents. At Wesco, Sarah Sara Folkerts, manager of communications, said the company had booked more than $250 million in large projects in just Q1 2024 alone. “Wesco was awarded a $30- million contract over four years by a global chemical and materials science company to provide wire and cable, power control and instrumentation to support the world’s first zero-carbon emissions integrated ethylene cracker,” she said in her company’s survey response.
“A major electric vehicle manufacturer has awarded Wesco a $100-million contract to provide power distribution units, fiber-optic cable, cabinets and other data center materials to a large EV manufacturer. And a national renewable contractor has partnered with Wesco on a $125-million project over five years to deliver high-voltage breakers for a renewable project, ensuring multi-year supply chain continuity.”
Larry Swink, the president and CEO of Jackson Electric Supply, Jacksonville, FL, sees sales for his company increasing +20% in 2024, in part because of large project work. Said Swink, “The Four Seasons Resort project in Jacksonville, FL, represents a significant development that will impact the local market upon its anticipated opening in 2026.
“This project, a collaboration between Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and Shahid Khan, owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, is set to become a pivotal component of the downtown Jacksonville Shipyards redevelopment and is the largest private investment project in the city’s history. It’s located near the St. Johns River, adjacent to the Sports Complex and the proposed “Stadium of the Future’.”
Craig LaRue, the CEO of Alameda Electric Supply, Hayward, CA, is expecting +8% growth this year and sees nice sales opportunities in EV charging stations for commercial, retail or municipal applications. But he says business in the San Francisco Bay area is slowing down and that the overall economy is contracting in 2Q 2024.
Although a fair number of distributors sense a slowdown coming, they struck an optimistic tone when asked which product areas look most promising over the next year or two. Electric-vehicle charging stations for commercial, retail and municipal applications; lighting control retrofits for commercial or institutional applications; and  pre-assembled electrical products or systems all were ranked high by respondents.
EW will publish the 2024 Top 150 Distributors ranking later this month at www.ewweb.com.