Cape Electrical Supply Buys Utility Distributor

Continuing its aggressive acquisition strategy in the industrial, MRO and utility markets, Cape Electrical Supply, Cape Girardeau, Mo., has acquired Utility Power Inc., Decatur, Ala., a 12-year-old utility specialist that provides utility products for municipalities, electrical service cooperatives and public-owned electric utilities. Utility Power will continue to operate from the Decatur location and becomes a dedicated distributor among Cape’s existing branch and distribution network. Utility Power former owners Jim Shipp, Mike Kennedy, and Charlie Douthit will remain active with their numerous utility customers.

 “We are excited to expand our operating footprint into Alabama with the addition of Utility Power,” Cape Electrical President and CEO Kyle Thoma said in a press release announcing the acquisition. “By incorporating their talented sales team’s experience and relationships, we will continue to strengthen our customer solution package by integrating Cape’s core construction and industrial business with Utility Power’s utility presence.”

Cape Electrical Supply has worked with municipals, rural electrical co-ops and investor-owned utilities on utility projects not only in its market along the Mississippi River corridor but in Santa Clara, Calif.; Anchorage, Alaska; and Wichita, Kan. The company says on its website, “We understand pole line construction, underground applications, meter box and transformer requirements, highway safety lighting, and the many areas relative to services performed by utility providers and sub-contractors. We also have a highly specialized and experienced team when it comes to power generation facilities. During the past several years, Cape Electrical has become a key supplier on many power plant build-outs around the country.”

The company has added more than a dozen locations during the past decade to increase its presence along the Mississippi River corridor, and it’s not the first time the company acquired a utility specialist. Bob Garrett, V.P. of business development and marketing, told Electrical Marketing in an email  that Cape Electrical Supply expanded into the utility market in 2008 when it purchased the former ESE (Electrical Sales & Engineering) business in Bowling Green, Ky.

“Later that same year, we broadened our footprint with the acquisition of DELMO Electric in Fisk, Mo., he said. “Both were dedicated full-line utility distributors with long-standing customer relationships among rural electrical cooperatives, municipal utilities, and investor owned utility providers. These acquisitions provided a runway for Cape Electrical Supply (CES) to enter the utility segment within our existing and adjoining market areas. The addition of Utility Power will only enhance our growth efforts.

“We look for future expansion in both our utility and C&I business segments. Our strategy includes both organic and acquisition growth plans. Cape Electric’s track record includes 11 acquisitions over the past 17 years.”

Garrett said Cape is “very bullish” on the market for utility infrastructure improvements and has a dedicated national accounts group (CES Integration) that works specifically in this segment of industrial construction.

“This business creates an interesting parallel to the utility market, in the fact that we’re providing product solutions from the point of electrical power generation through electrical power distribution on the utility grid, he said in the email. “We have dedicated resources to pursuing this business on a national level with our CES Integration team.”  He added that CES’ utility and CES Integration business now account for healthy share of the company’s overall revenue. “Both have also been very good diversification moves for our company,” he said.

Cape Electrical Supply currently operates 20 distribution and retail locations in Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, and Texas. The company is a member of Affiliated Distributors buying/marketing group and was ranked #73 on Electrical Wholesaling’s 2013 listing of the Top 200 electrical distributors.