Sonepar Adds 36 Branch Locations in New Zealand with Purchase of Corys Electrical

Fletcher Building Limited, a diverse publicly owned construction company based in Auckland, New Zealand, has entered into a conditional agreement to sell its electrical products distribution business Corys Electrical to Sonepar SA.

Corys Electrical was acquired by Fletcher Building as part its Crane Group acquisition in 2011. The price for the transaction is approximately US $71.4 million. Corys Electrical has sold electrical supplies in New Zealand since the 1920s and according to its website currently runs 36 locations.

Fletcher Building sells construction products including concrete, insulation, wallboard, roofing materials and aluminum products across Australasia, Asia, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and the South Pacific through seven divisions: Building Products, Concrete, Construction, Crane, Distribution, Laminates & Panels and Steel. The company had annual sales of approximately US$145 million. A Fletcher press release said the transaction will take approximately four months to complete.

Sonepar's corporate marketing office in Paris declined to offer any additional details on the acquisition. According to information on its website, Sonepar did not have any branch locations in New Zealand until this acquisition, so adding 36 branches in the country gives them a major foothold in the country. Sonepar's Australian operating subsidiary, Lawrence & Hanson Group (L&H), operates more than 180 branches run by five different distributors: L&H, Auslec, L&H Solar + Solutions, Pacific Datacom and Specialised Lighting Solutions. Some of these businesses were apparently part of Sonepar's 2008 acquisition of Hagemeyer's Australian operations, according to information on the L&H and Auslec websites. These businesses are part of Sonepar's Asia-Pacific business, managed by Keith Moss, president of the Sonepar Asia-Pacific region.

Sonepar has made headlines over the past two years with several large acquisitions in at least three other countries: its purchases of Codale Electric Supply, Salt Lake City; Dixon Electric, Sudbury, Ontario; Independent Electrical Distributors, San Carlos, Calif.; One Source Distributors, San Diego; Rosa Leal, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; SESCO/QUESCO, Toronto, Ontario; and Treadway Electric Co., Little Rock, Ark. In 2011, the company had sales of approximately $19 billion and 33,000 employees working in 2,090 branches.