Pace of Distributor M&As Picks Up in 2024 as 11 EW Top 100 Companies are Acquired

During 2024, no less than 20 distributors of electrical supplies were acquired. At least 11 of these distributors are on EW's 2024 Top 100 distributors listing.
The chart on page 2 lists the largest distributor M&As in 2024. The five largest distributors in the United States and Canada — WESCO, Sonepar, Graybar, Rexel and Consolidated Electrical Distributors — were active acquirers in 2024, with Sonepar leading the pack with seven acquisitions. Its largest purchase was Summit Electric Supply, Albuquerque, NM, and its 23 locations throughout the New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and Louisiana.
The EW Top 100 electrical distributors acquired during 2024 included Summit Electric Supply; Dominion Electric Supply, Arlington, VA (Border States Electric, Fargo, NC); Parrish-Hare Electrical Supply (Consolidated Electrical Distributors, Irving, TX); Electrical Supplies Inc., Miami (Mayer Electric Supply/Rexel), Birmingham, AL; and Blazer Electric Supply, Colorado Springs, CO (Graybar Electric Co, St. Louis, MO).
Sonepar’s other Top 100 purchases included Echo Electric Supply, Council Bluffs, IA; Madison Electric Co., Warren, MI; Standard Electric Supply, Saginaw, MI; and Electric Supply Center, Burlington, MA.
U.S. Electric Services (owned by CED), Middletown, CT, was also an active acquirer, buying Askco Electric Supply, Glens Falls, NY; and Desert Electric Supply, Palm Springs, CA, and Pomona Electric Supply, Pomona, CA, through its Walters Wholesale Electric business located in Brea, CA.
United Electric Supply, Wilmington, DE, also bought a Top 100 distributor with its acquisition of Kovalsky-Carr Electric, Rochester, NY. Several other acquisitions of interest included the sale of Independent Electric Supply, Toronto, Ontario, one of Canada’s larger independents by EECO Electric Co./WESCO; and the Austin, TX-based Facility Solution Group’s acquisition of an ESCO, Greenleaf Energy Systems, Oxford, CT. Another active acquirer over the past few years, Green Mountain Electric Supply, Colchester, VT, bought Walsh Electric Supply Co., also based in Colchester.
This year WESCO made some purchases outside the core electrical market to bolster its position in data center supply services, with its acquisition of the St. Louis, MO-based Ascent, a provider of data center facility management services and entroCIM, Port Huron, MI, a developer of data center and building intelligence software. The company bought another data center service provider in 2022, Rahi Systems, Fremont, CA.