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Breaking Down BarriersHow to Use EW’s 2018
Electrical Pyramid to
Analyze Competition
& Redefine Your
Channels of Distribution.
Read more on pg. 16
Hiring Millennials 22 Categorizing Customers 24 People On the Move 31
THE INDEPENDENT
VOICE OF ELECTRICAL
DISTRIBUTION
JULY 2018
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w w w. e w w e b . co m / J U LY 2 0 1 8 1
contentsFEATURES16 THE 2018 ELECTRICAL PYRAMID
EW’s editors explore where wire specialists
fit into the Electrical Pyramid and ofer
tips on using this resource to sort
out the channels of distribution.
22 CUSTOMER OWNERSHIP Distribution sales managers can make the
most of generational change by
understanding what younger workers want
from employers and salespeople.
24 ALL CUSTOMERS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL
With a simple trick like categorizing
customers as sheep or goats, a salesperson
can better understand their habits and
motivations.
DEPARTMENTS4 TIMES AND TRENDS
Redefining Distribution. EW’s Electrical
Pyramid can help you identify the strengths
and weaknesses of the various alternative
channels of distribution.
6 NEWS WATCH
Get a recap of the industry’s biggest news.
8 ELECTROSTATSMonitor the electrical market’s
key indicators.
10 BULLETIN BOARDLearn about new promotions,
awards, events & more.
29 PRODUCT ALERTNew product development in the electrical
industry is alive and well.
31 PEOPLEFind out who’s on the move.
July 2018
Volume 99, Number 7
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2 E L E C T R I C A L W H O L E S A L I N G / J U LY 2 0 1 8
Audited circulation. Electrical Marketing
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Winner of the Jesse H. Neal Editorial Achievement Award1966, 1973, 1975,
1981, 1985Winner of the Jesse H. Neal
Certifcate of Merit
1960, 1961 (First Award),1976, 1993, 1996 (2)
American Societyof Business
Publication Editors
2004 RegionalD E S I G N
Goldcirculation
less than 80,000
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July 2018 / Vol. 99, No. 7 www.ewweb.com
EDITORIAL
Content Director: James A. Lucy, [email protected]
Senior Staf Writer: Douglas Chandler, [email protected]
Art Director: David Eckhart, [email protected]
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Copper Pricing: John Gross, J.E. Gross & Co.
Acquisitions: Burk Burkhardt, HT Capital Advisors
Economic Forecasting: Herm Isenstein, DISC Corp.
Human Resources & Lighting: Ted Konnerth, Egret Consulting Group
Lighting: Bill Attardi, Attardi Marketing Group
Management & Strategic Planning: Frank Hurtte, River Heights Consulting;
Howard Coleman, MCA Associates; Scott Benfield, Benfield Consulting Group;
Neil Gillespie, Growth Wizards
Marketing: David Gordon, Channel Marketing Group
Reps: Jack Foster, Foster Communications
Sales: Mike Dandridge, High Voltage Performance; Bob Finley,
former president, Glasco Electric Co.; Terry Sater, veterans sales
& purchasing professonal
SALES AND MARKETING
Group President, Industry: Paul Miller, [email protected]
Vice President, Business Development: Linda Reinhard, linda.reinhard@
informa.com
Executive Director, Content: Karen Field, [email protected]
Director of Sales: Mike Hellmann, [email protected]
District Sales Manager (Western U.S. and Western Canada):
Jim Carahalios, [email protected]
District Sales Manager (New England and Mid-Atlantic States):
David Sevin, [email protected]
District Sales Manager (Midwest/Southeast/Southwest U.S.):
Jay Thompson, [email protected]
Online Sales: Kimberly Sampson, [email protected]
Classified Advertising: Linda Sargent, [email protected]
List Rental Sales: Justin Lyman, (913) 967-1377, [email protected]
Audience Marketing Manager: Sonja Trent, [email protected]
PRODUCTION
Ad Operations Manager: Greg Araujo, [email protected]
Ad Operations Specialist: Susan Poskin, [email protected]
Classified Ad Coordinator: Linda Sargent, [email protected]
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times&trends observations on our industry
4 E L E C T R I C A L W H O L E S A L I N G / J U LY 2 0 1 8
When EW’s editors up-
dated the Electrical
Pyramid for this issue,
we saw that for all their
faults, full-line electrical distributors
stack up pretty well against other
companies in alternate channels of
distribution that want a piece of the
electrical market.
Comparing full-line distributors
to their competitors reminds me of
what Winston Churchill said about
democracy: “It’s the worst form of
government, except for all the others.”
Alternative channels of distribution
do excel in some areas. But when you
compare their packages of services and
market knowledge to what the best
full-line electrical distributors ofer,
they don’t quite measure up.
Here’s an interesting exercise to
consider while you are looking at EW’s
2018 Electrical Pyramid on page 17.
Get out that magic wand and imagine
what your company would look like if it
could clone some of the strengths other
companies have developed and rein-
vent yourself into a super-distributor.
Here’s a few thoughts to get you started.
Imagine if you had the following:
The market coverage of Faste-
nal. If you dream of a national pres-
ence, imagine not only having more
than 2,000 branches but also 71,000
product vending machines installed
in customer locations. Tat’s Fastenal.
The first mover dominance of
Grainger in e-business. For years,
Grainger’s website was the gold stan-
dard in distribution. Te company had
a fully-functioning online storefront
ers are measured. Many distributors
are making strides in this area, but
the investment in an upgraded ERP
system and personnel to manage and
market online storefronts is not for
the weak of heart.
The industrial expertise of a
Rockwell Automation distributor.
To keep that Rockwell Automation logo
proudly displayed on their buildings,
these industrial automation distribu-
tors have always had to make major
investments in technically trained
personnel. Te products Rockwell sells
have changed over the years to keep
pace with technology but the serious
personnel investment the company
requires of its distributors has not.
An ESCO’s knowledge of energy-
eficient building systems. Not all
ESCOs have a broad focus that sup-
ports the energy-efcient retroft of
multiple building systems. But when I
visited ConEd Solutions a while back,
I was amazed at how many engineers
they had on staf. I expected them to
have electrical engineers to handle
the design end of their lighting, but
they also employed engineers with
expertise in HVAC and other building
construction verticals, too.
If you ever want to see how an elec-
trical distributor functions as an ESCO,
check out Facility Solutions Group,
Austin, TX, which has a business unit
that does energy audits, fnancial analy-
sis and lighting system upgrades for
Fortune 500 and government accounts
across the U.S.
The down-home friendliness
of the local hardware store. Any
electrical distributor would be well
served if customers felt like they were
shopping at their favorite local hard-
ware store whenever they stopped by
their branches.
I hope you enjoy re-imagining your
company as a “super distributor” with
these attributes. Now comes the tough
part — fguring out which part of this
exercise you and your team can make
a reality.
in the mid-1990s, years before many
other companies were considering
selling products online.
Anixter’s bold acquisition strat-
egy. As the largest wire and able distrib-
utor in the world, Anixter has always
been a tough competitor for full-line
electrical distributors in this product
niche. But when the company bought
HD Supply’s Power Solutions unit in
2015, it became the largest utility dis-
tributor, too. It was a move few industry
observers saw coming.
The in-your-face audacity of
Home Depot. From the gaudy orange
color logo to the miles of aisles stacked
to the ceiling with electrical products
in more than 1,900 stores nationwide,
Big Orange is tough to ignore. And with
$9.45 billion in electrical and lighting
sales (roughly 9.4% of total sales) it’s
very much an electrical force.
The online expertise of Amazon.
Until someone builds a better online
storefront, Amazon will always be the
ruler in e-business by which all oth-
Redefining DistributionEW’s Electrical Pyramid can help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of the various alternative channels of distribution.
By Jim Lucy, Chief Editor
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6 E L E C T R I C A L W H O L E S A L I N G / J U LY 2 0 1 8
Siemens Acquires IoT Sensor Network Provider EnlightedSiemens AG, Munich, Germany, recently added another
established IoT technology provider to its growing Siemens
Building Technologies division with a deal to acquire Enlighted,
Sunnyvale, CA. Te Silicon Valley startup focuses on the use
of lighting systems as a backbone for sensor networks of all
kinds and helping customers gain intelligence from that data.
Enlighted will be managed as an independent legal entity
and wholly-owned subsidiary of Siemens Industry Inc. Terms
of the agreement were not disclosed. Te news came shortly
afer the announcement of Siemens’ acquisition of IoT sof-
ware platform provider J2 Innovations, which is also joining
Siemens Building Technologies, as we reported in the previous
issue of Electrical Wholesaling.
Te Enlighted IoT platform, developed for commercial
real estate, includes multi-function sensors, distributed com-
puting and sofware applications. Te system analyzes and
visualizes the collected sensor data and transmits it securely
to a cloud-based service where customers can use it to drive
down operating costs and improve the inner life of a building,
Siemens said in a release. Its sensors can be installed in every
light fxture with the ability to collect data 65 times per second
to detect environmental and occupancy changes and react to
lighting and HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning)
needs in real-time. Te system is also able to locate people
and assets within a building and analyze the occupancy of
foors and rooms.
“Enlighted has a strong footprint in revolutionizing build-
ing intelligence by developing a multi-sensor-based IoT
platform, using the power of data,” said Matthias Rebellius,
CEO of Siemens Building Technologies. “With this move we
are demonstrating our commitment to drive digitalization in
the smart building industry.”
In a letter to industry partners, Neeraj Purandare, Enlighted
executive vice president of business development and alliances,
said, “Siemens will invest in Enlighted’s product lines and sales
channels to broaden our product portfolio and enhance our
operations. Enlighted will be managed as an independent legal
entity and wholly-owned subsidiary of Siemens Industry, Inc.
Te Enlighted name and brand will be retained.”
Enlighted recently introduced the ffh generation of its sen-
sor technology with a heavy emphasis on future-proofng IoT
systems by making sensors more easily upgradable by pushing
sofware updates or swapping out the physical sensor units.
Siemens Building Technologies, based in Zug, Switzerland,
with U.S. ofces based in Bufalo Grove, IL, concentrates on
whole building systems for automation, energy efciency,
fre safety and security. Te group has a comprehensive set of
HVAC oferings and, with acquisitions of J2 Innovations and
Enlighted, appears poised to extend its oferings into lighting
systems and sensors for a full-breadth IoT platform.
Power Products, LLC, Menomonee Falls, WI, has acquired
King Innovation, a manufacturer of construction-grade prod-
ucts for the irrigation, electrical, gas utility and landscape
lighting markets. King Innovation will become part of Power
Products’ Electrical Construction and Maintenance (ECM)
Division, which includes the brands Gardner Bender, Sperry
Instruments, Bergen Industries and Calterm. King Innovation
makes DryConn waterproof and dry location connectors and
other products for the contractor and DIY markets.
“The acquisition of King provides us with a broad ofering
of innovative and proprietary products and supports our
strategic initiative to grow rapidly in the electrical channel
and expand into adjacent channels. We are very excited to
welcome King’s management and employees to the Power
Products family,” said David Scheer, CEO Power Products.
King Innovation will continue to operate its R&D,
manufacturing, and all customer support functions from its
headquarters in O’Fallon, MO, under the direction of Frank
Vlasaty, president.
“The acquisition of King … creates a unique strategic
platform for our distributor, retailer, and catalog partners,”
Mike Masino, president of the ECM Division, said. “Further-
more, King’s industry leading range of products expands our
electrical category providing further value to our end-user
customers in the commercial, residential, and industrial
markets.”
POWER PRODUCTS BUYS KING INNOVATION
Fusion Optix Acquires Assets from Rambus LightingFusion Optix, Inc., Woburn, MA, acquired precision
production equipment relating to light guides and optical
flms, quality control testing equipment and other assets
formerly part of Rambus Lighting Division, Sunnyvale,
CA. Fusion Optix said the new equipment will be installed
at its Woburn headquarters bringing a signifcant increase
in-house production and engineering capabilities. Fusion
Optix, founded in 2003, makes light guides, optical materials,
LED light engines and light management components sold
to lighting fxture OEMs.
news of the electrical industry
w w w . e w w e b . c o m / J U LY 2 0 1 8 7
GE Recalls LED Tube Lamps Sold Through Lowe’s
GE Lighting, Nela Park, OH, issued a recall through
the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC)
regarding LED tube lamps sold in two-packs through
Lowe’s stores nationwide. The pins on one end of the
Cool White Universal T8/T12 LED tube lamps can be
energized during installation or removal, posing electric
shock and electrocution hazards.
No injuries have been reported related to the
hazard, according to the CPSC website. GE Lighting
is offering refunds for the recalled product, about
46,000 of which have been sold through Lowe’s stores
or the company’s Lowes.com website from Nov. 2017
through April 2018 for about $15. The lamps are
manufactured in China.
Anyone seeking more information can find it at the
Product Safety Information section of the GE Lighting
website at www.gelighting.com.
Kohler Recalls Automatic Transfer Switches
Kohler Power Systems, Kohler, WI, and the U.S. Con-
sumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced
a recall afecting about 6,600 Kohler 100A automatic
transfer switches due to fire hazard.
The CSPC notice said the transfer switch can fail and
overheat, posing a fire hazard. No incidents or injuries
related to this problem have been reported.
More specifically, CPSC said this recall involves
Kohler 100A service entrance rated automatic transfer
switches used with Kohler brand residential and com-
mercial generators. “Kohler” is printed on the outside
panel. Model number RXT-JFNC 100ASE and the serial
number are printed on a nameplate located on the
inside cover of the unit.
PRODUCT RECALLS
GE Dropped from Dow Jones Industrial Average
Global pharmaceutical giant Walgreens Boots Alliance
took the place of General Electric in the Dow Jones Industrial
Average (DJIA) on June 26.
GE is the last of the companies that made up the original
DJIA in 1896 to be dropped from the index. At GE’s low price
in a price-weighted index it made up less than half a percent-
age point of impact.
“General Electric was an original member of the DJIA in
1896 and a member continuously since 1907,” said David Blitzer,
managing director and chairman of the index committee at
S&P Dow Jones Indices, in an S&P Dow Jones press release.
“Since then the U.S. economy has changed: consumer, fnance,
health care and technology companies are more prominent
today and the relative importance of industrial companies is
less. Walgreens is a national retail drug store chain ofering
prescription and non-prescription drugs, related health ser-
vices and general goods. With its addition, the DJIA will be
more representative of the consumer and health care sectors
of the U.S. economy.”
Signify Acquires LiteMagic for China GrowthSignify (formerly Philips Lighting), Eindhoven, Neth-
erlands, has an agreement to acquire Shenzhen LiteMagic
Technologies Co., Ltd., a Chinese manufacturer and seller
of luminaires and control systems for urban and façade
lighting. Financial details were not disclosed.
With this acquisition, Signify expands its high-end
portfolio of façade lighting with a complementary port-
folio of luminaires and control systems to capture growth
in the mid segment of the urban market. Te acquisition
also will help the company to better capitalize on the large
and fast-growing market for urban lighting in China, said
a Signify press release.
LiteMagic Technologies, founded in 2004 and based in
Shenzhen, China, generated annual revenues of approxi-
mately €32 million ($38.2 million) in 2017. Te company
will continue to operate in China under the LiteMagic
brand name.
“LiteMagic Technologies has a strong foothold in many
cities in China and signifcant expertise in urban lighting.
Together we will bring our complementary and compre-
hensive portfolio of products, systems and services to the
growing number of cities in China looking to turn build-
ings, bridges and boulevards into beautiful public spaces
at night,” said John Wang, market group leader for Greater
China at Signify.
Signify has been in China since 1920. Currently the com-
pany serves professional and consumer markets through 36
sales ofces, more than 300 branded retail stores and 10,000
outlets. Signify’s second largest research and development
center is located in China and it operates fve manufactur-
ing sites in the country.
electrostats
8 E L E C T R I C A L W H O L E S A L I N G / J U LY 2 0 1 8
DODGE MOMENTUM INDEX INCHES UP IN MAY
Te Dodge Momentum Index eked out
a small gain in May, moving 1.8% higher
to 167.8 (2000=100) from the revised April
reading of 164.9.
Published by Dodge Data & Analytics,
the Dodge Momentum Index is a monthly
measure of the frst (or initial) report
for nonresidential building projects in
planning, which have been shown to lead
construction spending for nonresidential
buildings by a full year. May’s gain was the
result of a 4.7% increase by the commercial
component of the Momentum Index, while
the institutional component fell 2.4%.
Te Dodge Momentum Index has posted
solid gains through the frst fve months of
2018, rising 19% from the same period of
2017 and reaching a level not seen since
mid-2008. However, the upturn to this point
shows that the current expansion has been
more drawn out than what occurred during
the previous cyclical expansion. It has been
nearly seven years since the Momentum
Index hit bottom in July 2011, but it has
yet to eclipse its previous peak set in De-
cember 2007. At the same time, the recent
gains for the Momentum Index suggest that
construction spending for nonresidential
buildings should remain healthy through
the rest of 2018.
Dodge reported that in May 16 proj-
ects each with a value of $100 million or
more entered planning. Te two leading
commercial projects were a $310 million
mixed-use complex in Newark, NJ, and
the $300 million second phase of Nvidia’s
headquarters in Santa Clara, CA. Te
leading institutional projects were the
$300 million Milwaukee County safety
building in Milwaukee, WI, and the $300
million Texas Health Harris Methodist
Hospital expansion in Fort Worth, TX.
Dodge also reported that several other
large nonresidential projects broke ground,
including a $1 billion Facebook data center
in Nebraska, the $764 million expansion to
the Washington State Convention Center
in Seattle, WA, and a $740 million airport
terminal project at Salt Lake City Inter-
national Airport.
VITAL STATISTICS
Footnotes: 1 - preliminary; 2 - revised; 3 - includes residential improvements; Z - less than 0.005 percent; SA - seasonally adjusted; SAAR - seasonally adjusted annual rate. Sources: Construction Put-in-Place statistics - Department of Commerce; Housing starts - Department of Commerce’s Census Bureau; Electrical contractor employment numbers and hourly wage - Department of Labor; Copper prices - Metals Week; Electrical manufacturers’ shipment data - Department of Commerce; Machine Tool Orders - Association for Manufacturing Technology; Industrial Capacity Utilization - Federal Reserve Board; and Purchasing Managers Index - Institute for Supply Management.
Note: Additional economic data relevant to the electrical industry is available on a bi-weekly basis by subscribing to Electrical Marketing newsletter. For subscription information see www.electricalmarketing.com.
CONSTRUCTIONNew Construction Put-in-Place ($ billions, SAAR)
Mo. % YTY %Apr ’18
1Mar ’18
2Change Apr ’17 Change
Total Construction 1,310.4 1,286.8 1.8 1,217.7 7.6Total Private Construction 1,014.3 986.6 2.8 942.6 7.6Residential 556.3 532.4 4.5 507.8 9.5 New single family 285.7 285.6 0 260.7 9.6 New multi-family 62 59.8 3.6 64.6 -4Nonresidential 458 454.2 0.8 434.8 5.3 Lodging 31.1 30.2 3 26.9 15.6 Ofice 65 63.9 1.8 61.2 6.3 Commercial 87.1 89.6 -2.8 82.8 5.2 Health care 31.8 31.3 1.7 29.4 8.4 Educational 21.9 21.9 0.3 20 9.4 Religious 3.5 3.1 11.2 3.2 9.1 Amusement and recreation 14.3 14.4 -0.3 12.8 12.1 Transportation 18.1 17.7 2.5 12.7 42.5 Communication 26.1 25.8 1.4 22.1 18.4 Power 92.1 89.9 2.4 93.7 -1.7 Electric 69.2 67.5 2.4 70.5 -1.9 Manufacturing 66.3 65.9 0.6 69.2 -4.3
Public Construction ($ billions) 296.1 300.1 -1.3 275.1 7.7Residential 7.1 7.1 -0.2 5.6 26.4Nonresidential 289 293 -1.4 269.4 7.3 Ofice 9.9 10.3 -4.6 7.5 30.5 Commercial 3.8 4.1 -7.4 3.3 16.9 Health care 9.7 10.3 -6.2 9.2 5 Educational 74.2 74.2 0 68.5 8.2 Public safety 9.2 9.2 -0.9 7.9 16.1 Amusement and recreation 11.3 11.3 0.5 10.5 8.1 Transportation 33.7 33.8 -0.2 29.7 13.4 Power 6.1 6.4 -4.4 4.9 25.6 Highway and street 88 88.8 -1 89.8 -2 Sewage and waste disposal 20.6 21.3 -3 18.6 10.7 Water supply 12.1 12.2 -1.4 11.6 4.1 Conservation and development 8.6 9.2 -6.7 6.8 26.3
Mo. % YTY % Housing Starts (SAAR) May ’18
1Apr. ’18
2Change May ’17 Change
Total (thousands of units) 1,350 1,286 5.0% 1,122 20.3%Single-family (thousands of units) 936 901 3.9% 791 18.3%Multi-family (thousands or units) 404 363 11.3% 317 27.4%
EMPLOYMENT WAGE & PRICE STATISTICS Latest Mo. % Year YTY %
Mo. Month Change ago Change
Employment, Electrical Contractors (thousands) APR 906.7 -0.1 877.8 3.3Hourly wage, Electrical Contractors ($) APR 29.62 0.3 28.75 3.0Copper prices (cents per pound) MAY 306.40 -0.8 254.90 20.2
INDUSTRIAL MARKET Latest Mo. % Year YTY %
Mo. Month Change ago Change
Electrical Mfrs’ Shipments ($ millions) APR 3,044 -1.5 2,969 2.5Electrical Mfrs’ Inventories ($ millions SA) APR 5,107 0.2 4,756 7.4Electrical Mfrs’ Inventory-to-Shipments ratio APR 1.678 1.7 1.602 4.7Electrical Mfrs’ New Orders ($ millions SA) APR 3,033 0.2 2,967 2.2Machine Tool Orders ($ millions) APR 7,724 -0.9 8,011 -3.6Industrial Capacity Utilization (percent, SA) MAY 75.3 -0.8 pts. 74.8 0.7 pts.Purchasing Managers Index (percent) MAY 58.7 1.4 pts. 54.9 3.8 pts.
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10 E L E C T R I C A L W H O L E S A L I N G / J U LY 2 0 1 8
INDUSTRY EVENTSJuly 18–20NAED LEAD CONFERENCE
Austin, TX; NAED, www.naed.org
August 9–11IES ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Boston; Illuminating Engineering Society,
www.ies.org
August 12–15NAED ADVENTURE
Minneapolis; NAED, www.naed.org
September 9–13BICSI FALL CONFERENCE
San Antonio, TX; BICSI, www.bicsi.org
September 23–25MISSOURI RIVER CLUB CONFERENCE
Ozark, MO; NAED, www.naed.org
September 24–26ALA ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Asheville, NC; American Lighting Association,
www.americanlightingassoc.com
September 24–27SOLAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
Anaheim, CA; Solar Energy Industries
Association, www.solarpowerinternational.com
September 29–October 2NECA CONFERENCE
Philadelphia; National Electrical Contractors
Association, www.necashow.org
September 30–October 3IES STREET AND AREA LIGHTING CONFERENCE
Orlando; IES, www.ies.org
October 29–31AD ELECTRICAL NORTH AMERICAN MEETING
Grapevine, TX; Affiliated Distributors,
www.adhq.com
City Electric Supply, Dallas, TX, recently hosted its
third biannual NAMC in Grapevine, TX, at the Gaylord
Texan where more than 1,200 employees converged for
three days of learning, celebration, and networking.
Historically, this event was accessible only to branch
managers and senior leadership, but the company decided
the experience was too valuable to share with less than a
quarter of the employees and extended the invitation this
year to operations managers and outside sales representa-
tives in every branch instead of branch managers (who
will instead attend NAMC 2020 in Orlando).
“My biggest takeaway was that CES is defnitely going
somewhere,” said CES Nashville Downtown Operations
Manager Caleb Huestis in the press release. “To be able to
really see the growth in the last couple years and meet and
hear from people in the other branches was exciting. It
really put the icing on the cake that the opportunities here
are endless.” Huestis joined CES less than two years ago.
Highlights of the weekend included a private concert
from Blues Traveler, a tradeshow hosting 54 vendors, a
casino night, lots of food and laughs, and valuable net-
working time with peers and senior leadership.
NAMC18 was branded Te Journey and while the visu-
als were very outdoorsy and hiker-esque, the message was
clear: Career journeys at CES are personal and abundant.
CES celebrated two retirements in senior leadership from
40+ year tenures at the company, and shared stories of how
the organic growth model within CES provided endless
career opportunity for individuals that they felt couldn’t
be matched elsewhere.
Co-COO Andrew Dawes said in the press release,
“Tis company was built on the fact that you’ll get out
what you put into it. Bringing everyone together for this
event is a massive fnancial investment into the retention
of our employees, but we believe the camaraderie and
the opportunity that builds as a result of this cannot be
accomplished without having everyone together.”
City Electric Supply is a family-owned distributor with
an international headquarters in Great Britain and 900
branch locations in seven countries. Te company was
ranked #8 on EW’s 2018 Top 200 distributors listing and
operates 454 locations in the United States.
City Electric Supply Hosts Largest Conference in
Company History
ideas, f inds and resources
w w w . e w w e b . c o m / J U LY 2 0 1 8 11
Irby/Sonepar, Jackson, MS, a subsidiary of Sonepar, was
chosen by supplyFORCE as the 2018 TCO (Total Cost of
Ownership) Excellence Award
Recipient. Tis award recognizes
Irby for going above and beyond
to deliver value and drive savings.
Irby was instrumental in helping
supplyFORCE maximize their cost
savings with product savings, labor
savings, energy savings, inventory
savings and process improvements.
Each year at the supplyFORCE
National Meeting, supplyFORCE
recognizes Owner-Member distribu-
tors and manufacturer partners who
demonstrate excellence and deliver
value to our customers. Tis year
included 10 awards: best conversion,
sales leadership, an Owner-Member of the Year award for the
Electrical, Industrial, Pipe, Valves and Fittings, and Govern-
ment sales divisions, as well as a new award for Canadian
Owner-Member of the Year. supplyFORCE also recognized
an Owner-Member distributor for
TCO Excellence, a Manufacturer
Partner of the Year, and a Lifetime
Achievement Award.
“I would like to acknowledge the
strong partnership between Irby and
supplyForce that resulted in several
million dollars of cost savings pro-
vided to customers in 2017. Tese
savings included training, energy
savings to repairs, price negotiations
and emergency support, all the way
to regular occurrences like inventory
management,” stated Tim Park, Irby
VP of C&I Sales and Operations.
Founded in 1926, Irby has 57 loca-
tions in 25 states. Te company focuses on four major market
segments — industrial, contractor, commercial and utility.
supplyFORCE Recognizes Irby
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bulletinboard
Independent Electric Supply, Somerville, MA, rolled out
a new e-commerce website with a cleaner design, improved
functionality and enhanced content at www.iesbuy.com.
The five-location dis-
tributor serving Massachu-
setts, New Hampshire and
Rhode Island said it joined
with leading manufactur-
ers, buying/marketing group
Afliated Distributors and
website developer Unilog
to deliver a “best in class”
business-to-business (B2B)
e-store to keep customers in-
formed about new products
and services that will help to
add value and cut labor costs
through innovation.
In addition to being able to place orders online with
account-specifc pricing, “Te new website will beneft our
customers in many new and exciting ways, including: the
ability to view account details like open orders, order history
and account statement information,” said Bob Trolander, In-
dependent Electric Supply’s VP of marketing and business de-
velopment. “Customers will
also be able to search our
extensive product catalog
and get real-time price and
availability along with up
to date product details and
specifcation sheets.”
To assist with the new
website launch, Independent
Electric Supply added Taylor
Troy as digital marketing
specialist. Troy has a bach-
elor of fne arts degree in
graphic design. In her new
role, Troy will be responsible
for the IES online presence, including the website, social media
and all mobile marketing content. She will report to Trolander
and work in the Somerville location.
Independent Electric Supply Launches Online Store
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Ind
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ideas, f inds and resources
Klein Tools, Lincolnshire, IL, is now
accepting nominations for its annual Elec-
trician of the Year award, which recognizes
U.S.-based electricians who exemplify
professional achievement, safety excellence
and community dedication. Tis year’s
grand prize winner will receive a VIP Ex-
perience to the Big Game in February 2019,
as well as $1,500 of Klein Tools products.
Entries, including self-nominations, will
be accepted online until July 27.
“Every year, our team sets out to
fnd hardworking tradespeople who are
dedicated to their communities, electrical
safety and their professional achieve-
ments. We know electricians tackle big
jobs, but we’ve been continuously sur-
prised by all the nominees’ accomplish-
ments. Not only are they committed to
their careers, but they have a passion
for teaching others and helping future
tradespeople succeed,” says Greg Palese,
KLEIN TOOLS OPENS NOMINATIONS FOR 2018 ELECTRICIAN OF THE YEAR
vice president of marketing at Klein
Tools. “Klein’s Big Game Blitz offers
our 2018 Electrician of the Year $1,500
of Klein Tools products and a chance to
power of the TV and experience the 2019
Big Game in person, as a thank you for
all of his or her hard work and dedica-
tion to bettering the electrical industry.”
Klein Tools will announce six regional
winners on Aug. 8. Each will receive an
Ultimate Garage Package, which includes
an 18-piece Journeyman Tool Set; a trip to
Klein Tools’ manufacturing headquarters
in Mansfeld, TX, and almost $1,000 of
additional Klein Tools products.
Fans will have a chance to vote online
for their favorite regional winner from
Sept. 3-7. Te grand prize winner will
then be announced on Sept. 20 via Klein
Tools’ Facebook Live.
© 2
018
, Le
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on
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Co
., In
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bulletinboard
14 E L E C T R I C A L W H O L E S A L I N G / J U LY 2 0 1 8
Distributor Wire & Cable (DWC),
Aurora, CO, a wire and cable master
distributor, is enjoying its 10th year
DWC Celebrates 10th Anniversaryin business. DWC opened its doors
in 2008. Back then, founder Bryce
Huett, had experience in the wire and
cable industry and had spent time in
San Francisco working in technol-
ogy. He had an idea to combine the
two industries and create a diferent
kind of company. Tis company had
to have purpose and give people the
opportunity to be a part of something
that was meaningful.
With a small business loan, Huett
invested money in sofware develop-
ment. Tis investment allowed DWC
to create its own proprietary ERP. As
the company began to grow, it started
to build its inventory profle, adding
commercial and residential wire and
cable as well as value adds like striping,
dyeing and twisting. Additional growth
helped DWC open seven diferent cable
distribution centers across the United
States with the frst in Dallas, TX.
In the last 10 years, DWC has grown
year over year. If you ask Huett, or any-
one on the DWC leadership team, about
the secret to making this happen, they
will tell you, “It is the DWC Family.”
Building a company with a pur-
pose and giving people a meaningful
experience was one of Huett’s best
decisions. The company purpose,
“Develop our family, advance our in-
dustry, improve our world,” has driven
DWC employees for the last 10 years.
DWC’s commitment to developing
its family starts during a new family
members orientation and never ends.
There are regular team building events
and everyone is encouraged to have
candid conversations about goals and
development.
Te company created the frst cus-
tomer portal, myDWC, in their space.
It also introduced fastQuote to elec-
trical distributors, ofering wire and
cable quotes in less than six minutes.
Te company is also a big believer in
giving back to the community. Since
2008, DWC supported Toys for Tots
and has been increasing their support
ever since.
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w w w . e w w e b . c o m / J U LY 2 0 1 8 15
ideas, f inds and resources
Cal Ripken Joins Robroy for Dessert
Robroy Industries hosted its annual gourmet dessert
reception during this year’s recent NAED National Meeting
in Chicago. Tis popular event has been presented for many
decades as a way for Robroy Industries to demonstrate support
and appreciation for its electrical products distributor partners.
Tis year’s special guest was legendary Hall of Fame baseball
player Cal “Iron Man” Ripken, Jr., an athlete who exemplifes
extraordinary excellence and professional dedication. Te
evening also featured an exclusive preview of Robroy’s new
video, Leading the Way, a tribute to the company’s rich history
of leadership and commitment to the industry.
During this year’s dessert reception, Robroy Industries’
CEO, Rob McIlroy; Robroy Raceway Division president,
Steve Voelzke; and Robroy Enclosures president, Jef Seagle,
presented a check for $2,500 to the NAED Education and
Research Foundation. David Maxwell, senior VP of Graybar,
and Tom Naber, president and CEO of NAED and chair-
man of NAED Foundation’s board of directors, accepted
the contribution. Since 2009, Robroy Industries has made
signifcant annual donations to the NAED Education and
Research Foundation on behalf of all guests who attend the
dessert reception.
“At Robroy Industries, we place a high value on educa-
tion,” Rob McIlroy stated. “It is a pleasure to partner with the
NAED Education and Research Foundation each year to help
further education for our channel partners. Only through
ever-increasing knowledge can businesses serving the electrical
products industry meet ever-changing marketplace needs.”
The NAED Education and Research Foundation was
established to further the professional growth and career
development of the thousands of persons who work in the
electrical products industry.
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Industry Analysis
1 6 E L E C T R I C A L W H O L E S A L I N G / J U LY 2 0 1 8
EW’s editors explore where wire specialists fit into the 2018
Electrical Pyramid and ofer some tips on how to use this resource to sort
out channels of distribution in your market area.
2018 Electrical Pyramid
Building EW’s Electrical Pyr-
amid each year is always
an interesting exercise for
EW’s editors because it al-
lows us to incorporate any
changes in the individual channels of
distribution into what become one of
the most popular resources for analyz-
ing the electrical wholesaling industry.
While we don’t usually see many major
variations from one year to another in
EW’s Electrical Pyramid, we ofen get
questions from readers about the vari-
ous bricks in the pyramid or suggestions
about adding additional channels.
In this year’s EW Pyramid, you will
see that we added a brick in the pyramid
for the members of PEARL (Professional
Electrical Apparatus Reconditioning
League), who focus on the sale of recon-
ditioned or surplus electrical equipment
that’s passed strict standards of recon-
ditioning. We also decided to delete a
brick for commercial system integrators,
a channel for companies that specialize
on the supply of products for building
automation systems, until we see more
companies providing this service.
We did dig into one of the larger
channels in the EW Pyramid because
of a question from readers. A wire and
cable distributor was having difculty
identifying 200 other wire and cable
specialists we listed in last year’s Pyramid,
and that question set us on a mission to
update our list of players in this niche.
Accounting for an estimated 13% of
all products sold through distributors of
electrical products ($13.4 billion), wire
and cable is one of the core product niches
in the electrical wholesaling industry. It’s
a market unlike any other product area,
with totally unique channels to market
and all sorts of hybrid distributors that are
part wholesaler and part manufacturer. It’s
a segment of the electrical industry loaded
with industry veterans with decades of
industry experience, ofen with several
diferent companies within the business.
Terry Hunt, the founder of Houston Wire
and Cable, once told an EW editor that
in the wire and cable industry you may
switch companies from time to time but
you rarely leave the industry, much like
the infamous Devil’s Island where you
might switch prison cells, but you never
leave the island.
No two wire specialists are exactly
alike because so many of them difer in
how they go to market; their customer
focus; if they sell through or around full-
line electrical distributors; and whether
they perform the duties of distributors,
or blend those services with some manu-
facturing operations. Few companies
seem to have the same customer focus
or package of value-added services. You
have large specialty wire distributors like
Omni Cable Corp., West Chester, PA, or
Houston Wire & Cable, Houston, TX,
that primarily function as traditional
master distributors with a focus on pro-
viding a secondary source of supply
for hard-to-fnd or “B” and “C” inven-
tory items not ordered too ofen. For
them, full-line electrical distributors are
core customers. But plenty of specialty
distributor sell directly to industrials,
electrical contractors and other end us-
ers, and for them full-line distributors
are their biggest competitors. Anixter
Inc., Glenview, IL, is the biggest and
best example of these wire specialists.
Along with the distinction between these
operating strategies is a history of heated
battles between specialists that support
and sell to electrical distributors and
those that compete directly with them.
A key idiosyncrasy in this channel
of distribution is that wire specialists
may be both distributor and manufac-
turer. Along with stocking and reselling
products from diferent wire and cable
manufacturers, these companies build
wire and cable assemblies as part of
their custom cabling operations. Tey
bundle and “connectorize” various types
of cable into assemblies, and many also
ofer diferent insulation colors and stripe
or otherwise identify cable according to
customer specifcations.
To get a handle on just how many
wire specialists are out there now, EW’s
editors found the Dun & Bradstreet Mil-
lion Dollar Directory to be a valuable
resource because in addition to listing By Jim Lucy, Chief Editor
w w w . e w w e b . c o m / J U LY 2 0 1 8 17
FULL-LINE ELECTRICAL
DISTRIBUTORS
* Rexel, WESCO, Graybar, CED and Sonepar; 2016 sales estimate
Full-line electrical distributors
Niche distributors
Hybrid distributors
Retailers selling electrical supplies
Distributors from other trades
Other channels
Reps. An estimated 80% of all electrical manufacturers use independent manufacturers’ reps to sell their products. Many of these reps are members of the National Electrical Manufacturers Representatives Association.
Buying/marketing groups. Affliated Distributors and IMARK Group have an estimated 1,300 members.
KEY PLAYERS
PRODUCT NICHE DISTRIBUTORS
SERVICE/PRODUCT NICHE DISTRIBUTORS
HYBRID DISTRIBUTORS
RETAILERS SELLING ELECTRICAL SUPPLIES
DISTRIBUTORS FROM OTHER TRADES SELLING ELECTRICAL SUPPLIES
OTHER CHANNELS
Cataloghouses
Alliances between distributors from
different industries toservice MRO needs
Lighting reps
selling direct
Distributors of solar & wind
products
Amazon Business
Mfrs. selling direct
Buy/sellreps
Graymarket
Other web-
basedcompanies
Industrial distributors
at least 1,100
Tool specialistsmore than
1,000
Electronics distributors
Power transmission distributors200-plus
companies
Millsupplyhouses
Minesupply
distributors
HVACdistributors
Plumbingdistributors
The Home Depot Inc.$9.46 billion
in electrical sales
Lowe’s Inc.$6 billion+ in
electrical sales
Other home centers, building supply stores and other retailers
$1 billion-plus (not including Home Depot or Lowe’s) in electrical sales
Hardware storesMore than
15,000 locations
Anixter Brothers Inc.$6.54 billion
W.W. Grainger Inc.$900 million estimated sales
in electrical products
Fastenal Inc.More than $200 million
in electrical supplies
(Distribution or service companies with heavy design, installation or repair orientation)
High-tech specialists100-200
companies
Mo
tor
spe
cia
list
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VD
Vsp
ec
iali
sts
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co
mpanie
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om
pa
nie
s
Energy-service companies
(ESCOS)100 companies
Residential lighting
showrooms1,000-plus
Lamp specialists100-plus
companies
Wire and cable
specialists100-plus
companies
Utility specialistsLess than
100 companies
In total, an estimated 3,000 other distributors of electrical suppliesFull-line and specialty distributors operate approximately 7,500 total
locations in the U.S.
NAED firmsLess than 400 companies
with 5,100 locations
5largestfull-line
electrical distributors
$34.48 billion*
Super-regionalchains
Locations inseveral regions
eBayPrivatelabelers
OnlineLED
merchants
Reconditioned & surplus electrical products
PEARL members
Industry Analysis
18 E L E C T R I C A L W H O L E S A L I N G / J U LY 2 0 1 8
distributors of electrical supplies under
NAICS code 423610, it also ofers clues
on companies’ primary product focus
through SIC (Standard Industrial Clas-
sifcation) Codes 50630300-50630306 for
various sorts of wire and cable.
We visited the websites of all the
companies on the D&B list that had wire
and cable as a primary product focus
and according to D&B did at least $10
million in annual sales and found more
than 50 companies that were at least in
part distributors. D&B also had more
than 200 other companies with sales
listed at under $10 million (most with
sales under $3 million) that EW has not
yet verifed. Our best guess is that more
than half of these other companies also
function mainly or at least in part as
distributors of wire and cable.
BUILDING YOUR OWN
ELECTRICAL PYRAMID
Depending on how you need to ana-
lyze the channels of distribution in the
electrical wholesaling industry, you could
also do a deep dive (as EW’s editors did
into wire and cable) into an individual
channel of distribution using a source
like the Dun & Bradstreet Million Dollar
Directory that’s accessible for free at many
local business libraries, or take a more
local look at your market area.
While EW’s 2018 Electrical Pyramid
is a snapshot of the electrical market as
a whole, it can also be used as a tool to
analyze the channels of distribution in
your geographic market of choice. So, get
out your magic markers and whiteboards
and start drawing your own electrical
pyramids (See www.ewweb.com’s “10
more Ideas for How to Use Your Own
Electrical Pyramid.”) EW’s editors think
this article does a pretty good job of sum-
marizing the biggest channels to market
in the electrical industry. If you fnd other
bricks that belong in the pyramid, draw
them in and send them to us at jim.lucy@
informa.com. We may include them in
our next edition of Electrical Wholesal-
ing’s Electrical Pyramid.
One other key thought to remember
before you dig into the valuable exercise
of building your own electrical pyramid:
Remember that there really isn’t any right
or wrong combination of channels of
distribution. EW’s Electrical Pyramid is
in some ways more like a kaleidoscope
than a snapshot of the electrical channel,
in that the bricks in it shif on a product-
Because of the size of the installation, there’s a good chance the wire and cable installed at the Google data center in Mayes
County, OK, went direct. But wire and cable specialists sell computer cabling for hundreds if not thousands of jobs each year
that require customized cable assemblies.
Ph
oto
co
urt
esy
of G
oo
gle
“Accounting for an estimated 13% of all
products sold through distributors of
electrical products ($13.4 billion), wire and
cable is one of the core product niches in
the electrical wholesaling industry.”
w w w . e w w e b . c o m / J U LY 2 0 1 8 19
by-product or market-by-market basis.
For instance, a manufacturer that
wants to grow in the New York-New Jer-
sey metropolitan area may have entirely
diferent Electrical Pyramids for the fve
boroughs of New York and suburban
Westchester County or Long Island in
New York and Bergen, Hudson and
Passaic Counties in New Jersey because
the channels of distribution and local
buying infuences can be very diferent.
And the bricks in the pyramid that a
local electrical distributor will build to
analyze his competition for a slice of that
same market will look diferent from that
manufacturer’s pyramid.
Te Electrical Pyramid is going to
be much more valuable if you build
your own and customize it to your own
unique market needs. But like lots of
things, the devil is in the details. It’s a
fun exercise, so don’t be afraid. Here’s
how to get started.
Schedule at least a half-day. Invite
your management team and best strategic
thinkers to this session. If you can do
it of-site in a conference room, all the
better, but if time or budget don’t allow
it, fnd a quiet room in your building
where you can spread things out a bit.
Bring the right equipment. If you
are leading the discussion and are a
white-board type of guy or gal, you will
have fun with this assignment. Bring
ample erasable markers — you will be
building an Electrical Pyramid brick-by-
brick and will be thinking on the fy. Or, if
you aren’t into white boards, get hold of a
large roll of newsprint from an art supply
or craf store and bring along a handful
of markers. Other resources you should
have on-hand include laptops (internet
access is a big plus in this meeting);
copies of this article; and sticky notes.
If a PDF of this article would be helpful
for the session, contact EW at jim.lucy@
informa.com. Te analysis in this article
will provide a high-altitude overview of
the various channels (bricks) in each tier
of the pyramid. Your job in this exercise
is to bring this analysis down to ground
level for the market area under discus-
sion, and identify all the key players in it.
If you want to get creative and make
it a fun hands-on exercise, you may even
want to try bringing along some large
wooden building blocks, and Legos or
Duplo bricks. Assign the person in the
room with the most artistic talent with
the job of inscribing each brick with the
channel of distribution under discussion.
Assign one person to be the
“scribe.” If you are going with the build-
ing block idea, you have your man or
woman. But make sure you have someone
who is copying down all the ideas sure
to be fying around the room.
Build your pyramid level-by-level,
starting with full-line distributors.
Here’s where you will need a copy of EW’s
Electrical Pyramid illustration shown
on page 17. You may fnd it easiest to
start at the top with full-line electrical
distributors and work your way down
through the seven tiers shown in the
illustration. Te rest of this article will
walk you through each tier:
Full-line electrical distributors
Product niche distributors
Service/product niche distributors
Hybrid distributors
Retailers selling electrical supplies
Distributors from other trades
selling electrical supplies
Other channels
Web-based companies
If you are a distributor, go around the
room and start listing all competitors.
Group them by national chain, regional
chain or local independent. If you are an
electrical manufacturer or independent
manufacturers’ rep, do the same thing,
Wire and cable specialists come in all sizes and shapes, but several common
threads become quickly apparent when you visit the websites of the wire-and-
cable specialty distributors listed in D&B Million Dollar Directory. Below are
some examples of wire & cable distributors focusing on customers in several
primary areas: serving full-line electrical distributors, the voice/data/video
(VDV) market, OEM/industrial customers, aviation/defense & mil-spec and
renewables. (Companies listed alphabetically, not by size.)
UNTANGLING THE WORLD OF WIRE & CABLE SPECIALISTS
DISTRIBUTOR-FOCUSED
A.E. Petsche (Arrow Electronics)
Allied Wire and Cable
Allstar Cable Products Inc.
Anixter
Electrowire (Genuine Cable
Group/EIS)
Houston Wire & Cable
IEWC Global Solutions
Lance Wire & Cable
Metro Wire & Cable Corp.
Omni Cable Corp.
Windy City
Wirexpress
RENEWABLES
American Wire Group
Resitech Industries
Titan Wire & Cable
Wind Turbine &
Energy Cables Corp.
VDV EMPHASIS
Bay State Wire & Cable
Capital Electric Wire & Cable
Datatech
Firefold
Interstate Wire & Cable Co.
MCI Ashville
Norfolk Wire & Electronics
Primus Cable
Supply Solutions
OEM/INDUSTRIAL
Capital Electric Wire & Cable
TPC Wire & Cable
Unicable
USA Wire & Cable
AEROPSPACE/DEFENSE/MIL-SPEC
PIC Wire & Cable (Angelus Corp.)
SEA Wire & Cable
Whitmore/Wirenetics
Wiremasters
Industry Analysis
20 E L E C T R I C A L W H O L E S A L I N G / J U LY 2 0 1 8
but you may want to group them by the
amount of business you do, don’t do or
want to do with them. Depending on the
type of analysis you are doing you may also
want to pencil in which buying/market-
ing groups the distributors are in, if any.
And don’t forget to factor in the huge
role independent reps play in any local
market. Depending on your position in
the market (distributor, rep, manufacturer,
consultant, etc.) you may or may not want
to list and profle all of the independent
manufacturers’ reps in the market, and
possibly the factory-employed feld sales-
people who cover the market as well.
You may fnd that creating an Elec-
trical Pyramid leads to the creation a
“customer pyramid,” where you ana-
lyze your market’s key accounts by size,
type of company, market focus, the level
of service required and how they buy
product. And remember psychologist
Abraham Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs”
pyramid from that Psychology 101 class,
which illustrated our basic need for food,
water, shelter, companionship, respect,
etc.? You could draw up a customer’s
“hierarchy of needs,” where you illustrate
the importance of price, delivery, educa-
tion, return policy, etc. And don’t forget
to check out the Customer Pyramid at
www.ewweb.com.
Okay, now the hard work starts. Com-
piling a list of distributors (or reps) in
your market may unearth a few surprises
and provide some valuable information.
But to make this information really work
for you, sketch out a profle for each
of these companies and drill down to
their strengths and weaknesses. The
basic company profle should include
key management personnel; estimated
sales volume; market share; and pri-
mary market focus. You also need to
get answers from your assembled team
to questions such as:
“What value-added services does
this company provide that we currently
don’t ofer?”
On the fip side, “Which services
do we ofer where we have a clear ad-
vantage?”
Who are their biggest accounts?
With which customers are they
most vulnerable?
The Five Largest Full-Line Dis-
tributors Accounting for 33% of the
Market. Te electrical wholesaling in-
dustry continues to consolidate, and as
mentioned earlier over the last few years
the fve largest national distributors have
increased their market share to a third
of a $100 billion-plus market, and the
Top 200 largest distributors (see EW’s
June issue) account for 61% of total sales.
Product Specialists. Now move
down to the next tier of the Electrical
Pyramid. Go around the room and get
people to brainstorm about all of the
niche distributors in your market area
that focus on a specifc product category.
Te biggest product specialists typically
include residential lighting, lamps, wire
and cable and utility products. Others
include fuses, voice-data-video (VDV)
products and utility supplies. You may be
surprised by how many product special-
ists in your market area compete with
you on a few product lines. Depending
on how in-depth you want to go with
your analysis, you may or may not want
to develop company profles for each of
these product specialists.
Service/Product Niche Distribu-
tors. Find out what ESCOs and light-
ing maintenance companies are doing
in your market. Service/product niche
distributors have a heavy emphasis on
design, installation or repair. Although
they sell electrical supplies, product sales
may not be their primary function. Tese
companies focus on providing a complete
service solution to their customers.
Pay special attention to ESCOs, which
provide the most sophisticated package
of design, fnancing, technical assistance,
audit and, in some cases, installation
services in the energy market. Te sale
of electrical products is a relatively small
piece of the overall package of products
and services that ESCOs provide. Many
ESCOs are looking for distributors to
provide local warehousing support and
logistics for their lighting retroft proj-
ects. Te National Association of Energy
Service Companies (NAESCO), Wash-
ington, DC, ofers some good insight into
the world of ESCOs at www.naesco.org.
You should also pencil in lighting-
maintenance companies into this tier of
your pyramid. Tese companies, which
typically have contracts for the mainte-
nance and retroft of lighting systems
in stores, parking lots and other retail
or commercial facilities, are emerging
(Continued on page 27)
Accounting for 13% of all electrical products sold by electrical distributors and prod-
uct specialists, wire and cable is big business in the electrical market. Use EW’s
Electrical Pyramid to analyze what other types of companies compete for sales in
this key product area.
Ph
oto
co
urt
esy
of G
oo
gle
Sales Management
2 2 E L E C T R I C A L W H O L E S A L I N G / J U LY 2 0 1 8
Distribution sales managers can make the most of
generational change by understanding what younger workers
want from employers and salespeople.
CUSTOMER
OWNERSHIP
The ongoing change in cus-
tomer expectations and
preferences has made the
sales process more compli-
cated but we do fnd some
good ideas and insights for understand-
ing how distributors can respond.
In a recent article for Modern Distri-
bution Management, John Gunderson
By Ted Konnerth
raised an important issue about sales.
His premise is customers have changed
and the mindset of how a salesperson
calls on the customers has changed as
well. He posits three diferent types of
customers: Old School, Middle School
and New School.
Old School. Tese are the traditional
customers Baby Boomers grew up on.
Tey’re loyal, they’re personal or pro-
fessional friends and you call on them
by showing up … talking about life in
general, inviting them to lunch or golf or
a ballgame or fshing. Tese customers are
loyal to the sales process of old and to the
salespeople who have supported them.
Middle School. Tese customers tend
to be receptive and eager to learn about
new products or services but limited time
or resources make them more difcult
to see on a regular cycle. Tis customer
appreciates opportunities for entertain-
cira
no
83/i
Sto
ck/G
etty
Ima
ges
w w w . e w w e b . c o m / J U LY 2 0 1 8 23
ment but typically will limit access to
their time. Te sales process requires a
stronger demonstration of your value to
that customer: expertise, services and
demonstrated results.
New School. Te New School cus-
tomer is best typed as a Millennial: short
of time, not interested in relationships,
but very open to anything that saves them
time or adds convenience to buying from
you. Having a simple web-based service
platform or phone app for service infor-
mation is the key to earning their business.
Price is important, since they will e-shop
you, but convenience is highly valued.
Gunderson’s assessment summarizes
the generational changes that surround
our industry. Tis begs the question: how
do we attract talent that will meet our new
and future customers’ needs? As efective
as the baby boomer approach was in its
day, that ship has sailed for most Middle
or New School customers. So, how does
the cultural transition directly impact our
industry? Here are a just a few things that
will need to change, and quickly:
Training. It’s likely that a Middle
School sales rep can be efectively trained
to nurture Middle and New School cus-
tomers, but it’s unlikely a Baby Boomer
sales rep will make that adaptation. How-
ever, Boomers are going to be around for
a while. Encourage them to maintain their
current, proftable customer relationships
and add newer talent to develop the New
School customer base.
Support structure. New School
salespeople will need marketing and IT
support to provide their customers with
immediate access to buying information:
current pricing, current inventories, speci-
fcation info, options and any comparative
information that justifes your products
over a competitor’s.
Hiring. Old school hiring and training
practices will doom your probabilities of
success. If you try to a Millennial using
old school retention practices, you will
succeed only in landing the less-successful
minded talent. Consider these classic
practices through the lens of a millennial:
Pay your dues. A classic strategy of
limiting employee growth rates based
on an arbitrary timeline of performance
in roles that under-value the employee’s
skills until a magical timeline allows them
to move up to the next position under a
similar timeline. Many distributors, and
some manufacturers, require all new
‘future’ managers to work in the factory
or warehouse to learn how the work gets
done. Millennials don’t buy into paying
dues; they paid tuition, they’re ready to
perform in their area of expertise … now.
Training. Te traditional one day of
training on how Big Corp works doesn’t
match with the millennial mindset of
insatiable training and input into their
career advancement. Training should
include the big picture of Big Corp as
well as the specifc duties and respon-
sibilities in their chosen position, with
regular updates on their progression to
the next level.
Covenants on their future. The
‘new era’ of hiring in a market with a
diminished and fully employed work
force is to require all new employees
to sign a non-compete contract. Some
of these contracts have up to two years
of restrictions on moving within the
industry. Te premise that a company
can restrict future opportunities for their
employees is tantamount to indentured
servitude. Millennials aren’t looking for
a long-tenured career and the employer
has no illusions that they are ofering
lifetime employment. Forcing someone to
sign a non-compete, knowing in advance
they’ll likely leave in two to three years is
just an exercise in futility. Let’s just call
it as we see it: you hire an employee for
a return on your investment. Similarly,
the employee hires on as a return on their
investment. When those expectations are
no longer in balance, the employee moves
on. I believe non-compete agreements
are not worth the inherent distrust they
engender between both parties. Not to
mention the costs of threatened legal
enforcement.
Tech influence. Hiring and training
in tech companies is easy, fast and enthu-
siastic. Tech companies actively ‘recruit’
people, not applicants. Tey actively reach
out and engage potential employees. Tey
don’t have non-compete contracts, they
don’t require their employees to ‘pay their
dues’ and they engage the new employee
in stimulating and challenging assign-
ments – frequently.
Customer segmentation. It’s time
we stopped viewing a customer as an
asset of a salesperson. Common sense
will tell you that a departing employee
does not have the power to convince a
third-party buyer or partner company to
change business without a value propo-
sition that goes beyond who their sales
person is. No employer assumes that the
only reason they get business from any
particular buyer is solely attributable to
an individual salesperson. If that were
true then they should self-insure that
relationship with backup support and
multiple relationships that will transcend
the primary relationship. Tat fact is
evident for any role: product manager,
engineer, sales, marketing and executive
level talent. With very few exceptions, no
one person owns a relationship to the
extent that, should that party leave, the
customer relationship will disappear. We
place salespeople regularly and they never
bring 100% of their business relation-
ships with them to the new company. It’s
impractical and illogical to assume they
will. If your business is exclusively tied to
one individual, you don’t have a business.
Solution? Design your company to
be attractive to quality talent. Start your
relationship based on honesty, not a forced
pre-nup. Provide value to employees to
earn their loyalty, not proscribe it.
The premise that a company can restrict future opportunities for their employees
is tantamount to indentured servitude.
Ted Konnerth, Egret Consulting
Group’s founder and CEO, recruits on a
retained basis, helping leaders in the elec-
trical and lighting industry identify their
next C and V-level hire. To contact Ted,
email him at [email protected].
Sales Techniques
24 E L E C T R I C A L W H O L E S A L I N G / J U LY 2 0 1 8
With a simple trick like categorizing customers as sheep or goats, a
salesperson can better understand their habits and motivations.
All Customers are Not Created Equal
If you have ever spent time visiting
or living on a farm you are probably
familiar with the barnyard. Here you
are likely to encounter a mixture of
livestock like cows, chickens, goats
and sheep peacefully grazing together.
Goats and sheep are among the friend-
lier, more outgoing animals in this
group. While similar in size and
sound, their “personalities” are
very different. Sheep are gre-
garious followers while goats
are rebellious escape artists
with high levels of curios-
ity. A farmer with goats in
his barnyard must practice
extraordinary vigilance to
keep them safe and healthy.
What if we thought about
our customers as goats and sheep
in the barnyard? Challenging cus-
tomers as goats and good custom-
ers as sheep? By sorting out our
customers to gain an understanding
of their buying habits and needs we
can positively afect our sales growth
and drastically reduce the emotion and
frustration that occurs when our customer
relationships are not meeting our expectations.
Separating your “goats and sheep,” i.e. know-
ing how you should be investing your time and
emotional energy in selling to them, will reward
both you and your customer.
Selling to goats. Chances are, you have a customer or
two who are particularly demanding in a variety of ways.
By Mark Serafino
w w w . e w w e b . c o m / J U LY 2 0 1 8 25
Perhaps they ofen call you with incomplete bills of material,
yet demanding that you send them a quote anyway, adding that
they need the price in 15 minutes.
Or, maybe you have a customer who balks at every price you give
to them, complaining that they could buy it cheaper from your competi-
tion. Tey might lead every conversation with a warning that you’ll need
to be the lowest price if you want to have any chance at writing this order,
without any regard for any added value your company may have to ofer.
It’s all about the lowest price.
Early on in my career I had the occasion to spend time with a purchasing
director from a national retail store. Tis man was responsible for a $250
million product line within the women’s furnishings department, which hap-
pened to be the most proftable department in the company.
Not surprisingly, he told me that his primary sup-
plier’s competitors were constantly trying
to low-ball pricing so they could
replace them. Tat
strategy that
only worked
once. Early on
in his career he
had taken the bait and
given the low-price supplier an
order at a much lower price. When the “discount” vendor delivered an
inferior product weeks late, my friend learned a valuable lesson in total
value pricing.
Ten there is the customer who consistently orders the wrong material,
blames you for their mistake and demands that you take it back at no charge
or he will never buy from you again. If you have a customer who fts any of
these descriptions, then chances are your customer is a goat.
On the other side of the spectrum is the customer who, when sending an
incomplete bill of materials, also provides you with the contact information
for individuals who you can call to verify parts, quantities and specifca-
tions. Tey very rarely pressure you for an answer and when they do, you
can almost bet that they are going to reward you with an order. Custom-
ers like this ofen see a greater value in you and your company than price
alone. Tey respect and appreciate the knowledge you have, and the time
and efort you dedicate to helping their project to be successful.
If this customer makes a mistake he will tell you upfront. As a result of
his honesty you will bend over backwards to help him, even if it means
eating some of the cost of his mistake. Aferwards he will look to fnd ways
to reward your loyalty with even more business. If you have a customer
who fts this description, he or she is a sheep.
Troughout my selling career, my customer list has consisted of a
mixture of goats and sheep. Te trick has always been to know who
was who at any given moment or time and how to handle them ac-
cordingly. Regardless of their “species,” all of our customers have
the potential to drive both revenue and personal income. It’s not
about getting rid of or changing your goats, it’s about learning how
to manage them diferently than your sheep.
Sales professionals ofen become frustrated by a goat customer
because of the amount of time, phone calls, emails and follow-up
meetings required to satisfy their needs, adversely afecting their
return on investment when compared to sheep. Situations like
IrinaBelokrylova/iStock/Getty Images
Sales Techniques
26 E L E C T R I C A L W H O L E S A L I N G / J U LY 2 0 1 8
this can ofen become toxic, resulting in
an environment where neither customer
nor vendor fres the other. Tey simply go
on conducting business as usual without
beneft to either party. In addition to a
sort of business deadlock, these selling
environments can add unnecessary stress
for both customer and salesperson. In
some cases, customers are lost through
absenteeism, meaning they simply fade
out of the salesperson’s daily routine.
Firing a customer focused on price
alone isn’t the answer. Te best and most
proftable solution for a salesperson is to
change from an expectation of how they
want the customer to buy from them, to
an understanding of how their customer
wants to a salesperson to sell to them. Tis
will require the salesperson to change the
way they engage with the client.
Salespeople can get caught up in
selling as if all customers buy equally.
In reality, the things that really matter
to one customer may be of little or no
interest to another. What works for one
client need not work for all. Each customer
should be considered by their individual
needs, not the salesperson’s style.
In the case of the customer whose sole
and complete focus is to buy materials at
the lowest cost: give them what they want!
Give them the lowest price you can give
them for that particular product, telling
them “this is my best price.” Sometimes, a
price-oriented customer is programmed
for the kill. Tey want to know that they
lef nothing on the table in this negotia-
tion, and by telling them (you might say,
warning them) that your price is already
as low as you can go, you might actually
win more business, because provided you
stand frm, you’re giving the customer
what he wants. Notice that I didn’t say
to sell your product at a loss, or below
company guidelines. It is never advisable
to “buy” an order with the hope that you
can make it up on the next one.
The same tactics can be applied
to the customer who asks for prices
based on vaguely described products
or specifcations. Insecurity with the
product they are buying, or its ap-
plication, is ofen the reason that they
employ this tactic, usually with the
excuse that they’re too busy to fnd
out more, or the information that they
gave to you is all that their customer
shared with them. In these situations,
try laying the blame on yourself. Try
telling your customer that because of
the complexity of their requisition, you
would like to get as much information
as possible to avoid putting him in a
situation where he might be buying
the incorrect material. Which, by the
way, is the cause of frequent customer
buying errors. A tactic like this could
be helpful in moving the customer’s
feeling of insecurity to a position of
making a calculated business decision.
Successfully selling to goats is chal-
lenging, but selling to sheep is not with-
out its own challenges. Customers whose
business is built on partnerships and lon-
gevity are well known to their suppliers.
Buying habits like total value purchasing,
loyalty are frequently directed to all of
their key vendors. Everyone in your in-
dustry knows who these customers are,
especially the competition, which is why
selling to sheep ofers a completely difer-
ent set of considerations for salespeople.
Selling to sheep. Te frst consider-
ation in selling to sheep is competition.
Competitors are a part of every sales
job, like ants are a part of every picnic.
Tey will constantly explore new ways
to overwhelm your best customers using
everything from special prices, terms and
conditions and sales promotions, some of
which can be very efective and dangerous
to your share of wallet with your client.
While challenges like this from com-
petitors are certainly plentiful and dan-
gerous, the worst mistake a salesperson
can make is to open the door for the
competition by taking the relationship
for granted. Sheep can quickly become
goats if they sense that they are being
neglected or worse yet ignored. As with
goats, it is important for salespeople to
assess each customer’s individual needs
and build an engagement plan that meets
the customer’s expectations, not the
salesperson’s.
One frequent mistake sales profes-
sionals make with sheep is pricing over-
confdence. Tey take their relationship
with the customer and his consistent
loyalty for granted, assuming that for
the client, price is not an issue. Tey may
simply be unaware of how their client cal-
culates price. To quote Pablo Escobar, the
infamous 1980’s drug lord,“Everybody
has a price. Te important thing is to
fnd out what it is.”
When sales pros communicate fre-
quently and transparently with their
best customers they block out the “white
noise” of the competition’s counter-at-
tacking sales pitch. Keeping your cus-
tomer informed of developments, good
and bad, signifcant and insignifcant, is
an expression of partnership and trust
that your customer will appreciate. By
communicating this way, your customer
will have a real understanding of your
company’s advantages and challenges
and will work with you to capitalize on
positive developments and help you
through the challenges.
Well-trained professional salespeople
intuitively separate goats and sheep, then
proftably sell more of their products to
both groups. Tey identify customer buy-
ing habits or needs that require diferent
kinds of attention and give the customer
what they want with greater returns.
Given time and experience, the sales pro’s
customer list begins to blend together to
form a balanced, healthy fock.
Mark Serafno is regional vice president
for the western region of Omni Cable,
West Chester, PA. He can be reached at
The first consideration in selling to sheep is
competition. Competitors are a part of every
sales job, like ants are a part of every picnic.
w w w . e w w e b . c o m / J U LY 2 0 1 8 27
(Continued from page 20)
as skilled players in the energy game.
If you want to get a sense of how far
these companies have evolved, check out
the training resources at www.nalmco.
org, the web-site for the interNational
Association of Lighting Management
Companies (NALMCO), Ankeny, IA.
NALMCO’s training resources help
school its members in the latest in en-
ergy-efcient lighting systems. Some full-
line electrical distributors are members
of NALMCO, including Border States
Industries, Fargo, ND; Facility Solutions
Group, Austin, TX; and Graybar Electric
Co., St. Louis.
Hybrid Distributors. Don’t overlook
Grainger and Fastenal. Grainger and
Fastenal are tough to categorize because
they don’t carry a full line of electrical
products. But they are defnitely com-
petitors to full-line distributors because
of their intense focus on the industrial
MRO and facility maintenance markets,
rock-solid balance sheets and progressive
internal operations. Electrical products
account for more than 15% of Grainger’s
total sales. But because of its sheer size,
willingness to invest in its e-business
capabilities, distribution network and
branch infrastructure, the company is
a formidable competitor. If you have a
Grainger branch in your neighborhood,
add a brick to your pyramid for them.
By some measures, Fastenal may be a
peripheral player in the electrical market.
But with almost 4.9% of its $4.39 billion
in sales (an estimated $215 million) in
electrical products; more than 12,000
electrical stock-keeping units (SKUs)
listed on www.fastenal.com and 2,034
U.S. branches, you need to keep an eye
on them. And if you want to learn about
something really interesting, do some
research on the company’s FAST Solu-
tions vending program, where it has more
than 71,000 vending machines already
installed in customer locations. Add
another brick to your pyramid for them.
You may also want to include Anixter
International Inc., Glenview, Ill., on this
tier of your pyramid if they have any
locations nearby. Tey could also be
called a product specialist because of their
primary emphasis on wire and cable, but
they also sell other electrical products
and provide some unique customized
supply chain services for customers.
EW’s editors put them in this tier. With
their acquisition of HD Supply they are
defnitely a hybrid distributor — part
wire and cable specialist, part utility
distributor and part full-line distributor.
Retailers Selling Electrical Sup-
plies. Keep an eye on what Home Depot
and Lowe’s are doing. When you fgure
that Home Depot or Lowe’s does roughly
9% of their total sales in electrical prod-
ucts, you realize why you still have to
watch what these big boxes are doing in
their electrical aisles. It’s true that a huge
chunk of their electrical business is in
residential fxtures, which may or may
not be a concern. And although all of the
talk about home centers going afer the
contractor market in a big way seems to
have died down a bit, both still provide
home installation services and Lowe’s ap-
pears to have a fairly large residential solar
installation play in its Sungevity service.
And here’s an interesting side note
that shows just how big electrical sales are
at Big Orange. Home Depot’s 2017 10K
fling says its electrical aisles account for
5% ($5.04 billion) and its lighting aisles
account for 4.4% ($4.41 billion) of total
2017 sales of $100.9 billion.
Distributors from Other Trades
Selling Electrical Supplies. That
distributor down the street may be a
competitor. When you have at least
1,000 industrial distributors, 1,000 tool
specialist distributors, and more than
200 specialists in power transmission
products in the United States, you know
some electrical sales are fowing through
these ofen-overlooked channels. If you
have any of these types of distributors in
your market, as well as distributors of
electronics components, HVAC equip-
ment, plumbing supplies or other spe-
cialty distributors, they may be worth
further study to see what kinds of elec-
trical products they might be stocking.
It makes a lot of sense to get to know
the distributors from other trades in your
local market area. In a sense, you are in
the same business but are just shipping
diferent stuf in the boxes. Find some
non-competing distributors from other
trades and compare best practices in
sales, warehousing, delivery, e-business
and operations. You may also want to
consider joining the National Associa-
tion of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW),
Washington, DC (www.naw.org), which
provides some terrifc venues for network-
ing with distributors from other trades
and an insider’s perspective on legislative
issues of interest to distribution frms.
Other Channels. Always changing
but always growing. Any single brick in
this level of the EW Electrical Pyramid
probably may or may not account for a
ton of electrical sales in your market.
Tis level of the Pyramid may be tough-
est to track because it’s where the new
and potentially competing channels of
distribution frst start out.
Do you have any reps in the spec-
grade lighting niche selling direct? Pencil
them in. And if solar is growing in your
market area, fnd out who is selling the
photovoltaic (PV) equipment. It might
be a small PV contractor who is also
a dealer for a limited number of lines.
Another hotly debated sales channel is
the manufacturers selling direct. Outside
of providing large quantities of wire and
cable for massive projects in the utility
market; gigantic turnkey switchgear or
automation projects; spec-grade light-
ing packages; and now LED lighting
solutions, this historically hasn’t been
a widespread issue in the mainstream
electrical wholesaling industry. However,
we expect more lighting manufacturers
to sell their customized LED lighting
solutions direct to end users.
Online Merchants. Depending on
your market position, these bricks in the
pyramid may be changing the fastest. Te
most obvious bricks here include www.
amazon.com, www.ebay.com and the
online LED merchants mentioned earlier.
Summary. Afer you build your own
Electrical Pyramid, check out www.ew-
web.com for more information that EW’s
editors have posted on some of the fastest-
growing alternative channels of distribu-
tion over the years. Just type “electrical
pyramid” into the search engine.
classified products, resources & services
28 E L E C T R I C A L W H O L E S A L I N G / J U LY 2 0 1 8
Ad close: 7/13/18
Materials due: 7/17/18
ISSUE THEME
Head Start On Market Planning
ISSUE COVER STORY
EW’s Picks for the Fastest -
Growing Local Markets
ONLINE PHOTO GALLERIES
10 Can’t-Miss Resources for
More E ective Market Planning
To place a Classifi ed Ad Contact Eric Hughey:
[email protected] | (913) 967-7347
August 2018 Issue Preview
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w w w . e w w e b . c o m / J U LY 2 0 1 8 29
sales stafVice President,
Business Development
LINDA REINHARD
200 W. Madison Street, Ste. 2610
Chicago, IL 60606
Phone: 312-840-8442
Fax: 913-514-7509
Director of Sales
MIKE HELLMANN
Andover, MA • Phone: 978-289-0098
District Sales Managers
Midwest/Southeast/Southwest U.S.
JAY THOMPSON
Phone: 913-967-7543
Europe
RICHARD WOOLLEY
Banbury, OXON
Phone: +44-1295-278-407
Fax: +44-1295-278-408
Western U.S.
& Western Canada
JAMES CARAHALIOS
5921 Crestbrook Drive
Morrison, CO 80465
Phone: 303-697-1701
Fax: 303-697-1703
Northeastern U.S.
& Eastern Canada
DAVID SEVIN
24 Houghton St.
Barrington, RI 02806
Phone: 401-246-1903
Fax: 913-514-7454
Classified Advertising/
Inside Sales Manager
Contact Jay Thompson
advertisers index
Advertiser Page No.
Burndy, LLC ..................................................... 5
Champion Fiberglass Inc.. ............................. 3
EIKO LTD. ..................................................... IBC
EW Free Subscriptions ................................. 30
Forest Lighting .............................................IFC
Hubbell - Killark ............................................BC
IDEA ............................................................... 14
Leviton Manufacturing Co. .....................12-13
Lighting-Etc. Inc............................................ 11
Meltric Inc. ..................................................... 15
National Power ............................................. 21
Panasonic Corporation.................................. 9
This index is a service to our readers. Every
efort is made to maintain accuracy, but
Electrical Wholesaling cannot assume
responsibility for errors or omissions.
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Get your own FREE subscriptionElectrical Wholesaling is engaged in helping electrical distributors,
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Each month you’ll get need-to-know business information written for
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people promotions and new appointments
w w w . e w w e b . c o m / J U LY 2 0 1 8 31
IMARK Group (Oxon Hill, MD): Bob Smith, president
and chief executive of IMARK Group, has been elected by
the board of the international electrical distributor market-
ing group IMELCO to serve as chairman. IMELCO is a
member-owned group of electrical wholesaler organizations
from across Europe, Australia, Russia and North America.
Te group held its 2018 annual General Assembly meeting
in Frankfurt, Germany, June 4-6.
“I believe IMELCO and its members are at the dawn of a
new era with tremendous opportunities before them. With
the network of IMELCO members already conducting busi-
ness around the world, the prospects of expanding current
successes through better communication and technology
is right before us,” Smith said. “Together with our supplier
partners we look to expand our reach and market penetration
to our collective beneft.”
Independent Electric Supply
(Somerville, MA): Coinciding
with the launch of the distribu-
tor’s new website and e-store,
Taylor Troy has joined the
company as digital marketing
specialist. Troy has a bachelor
of fine arts degree in graphic
design. In her new role, Troy
will be responsible for the IES
online presence, including the
website, social media and all mo-
bile marketing content. She will report to Bob Trolander, VP
of marketing and business development, and work in the
Somerville location.
Crescent Electric Supply Co. (East
Dubuque, IL): Tim Rooney was
appointed to vice president–
Construction Sales, where he
will oversee the company’s con-
struction business segment and
interactions with industry as-
sociations and key customers.
Rooney brings more than 38
years of sales experience in both
the electrical and lighting busi-
nesses to this newly created role.
He began his career with GE Supply and has held senior sales
management roles at Cooper Industries both at the corporate
level as well as with the Crouse Hinds Division. At Emerson
Electric, Rooney was the vice president of sales for EGS. He
was also the vice president of sales at the Juno Lighting Group
for seven years prior to their acquisition by Acuity. Most
recently he was the vice president of sales for commercial
markets at Hubbell Lighting. Rooney holds a bachelor’s degree
in business from Rochester Institute of Technology.
Dakota Supply Group (DSG) (Fargo, ND): Paul Kennedy
has joined the company as CEO and is leading DSG’s man-
agement eforts and overseeing the company’s business
operations. He will be based out of DSG’s Plymouth, MN,
ofce but will also spend considerable time at DSG’s 33
locations throughout Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota,
South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Before joining Dakota Supply Group, most recently
Kennedy served as president and COO of Midwest-based
First Supply. Prior to that, he spent 20 years in progressively
senior management roles with Westburne Supply, Ferguson
Enterprises and Wolseley in Canada. Tracing his roots,
Kennedy’s career began as a Navy Intelligence Ofcer, then
shifed to management of a plumbing and HVAC contractor
in upper Minnesota. He’s been part of the trade industries
ever since.
Along with being one of the largest distributors of elec-
trical supplies in the United States, DSG also supplies the
plumbing, HVAC/R, utility, communications, waterworks
and automation trades. Te employee-owned company has
nearly 700 employee-owners.
Lee Nelson, founding principal and owner of
Nelson & Associates, Santa Fe Springs, CA, passed
away on May 20 in Palm Desert, CA. He got his start in
the electrical industry with a job at Wisconsin Electric
Power Co. He also served as a product manager at
Paragon Electric in Two Rivers, WI. When he became
a regional manager for Paragon he moved his fam-
ily to California. A few years later, he put together a
proposal to become the Paragon rep for Southern
California. Slowly but surely, a line card was filled
and his rep business grew.
Lee was married to JoAnne Nelson for over 50
years until her passing in 2008. Together they raised
four children: Kurt Nelson, Kathy Nelson-Grof, Todd
Nelson and Lisa Nelson-Moore. Lee and JoAnne shared
in their joy over their six grandchildren: Joann Grof-
Gillett, Katherine Grof-Dickelman, Thomas Nelson
Grof (Kathy), Brooke Emily Nelson (Todd), Madelynn
JoAnne Moore and Lillian Jean Moore (Lisa).
Lee later remarried in 2013 to Darlene Nelson,
who preceded him in death. He will be cremated
and placed in the Veterans Memorial Cemetery with
his wife JoAnne.
OBITUARY
Troy
Rooney
people promotions and new appointments
32 E L E C T R I C A L W H O L E S A L I N G / J U LY 2 0 1 8
Falls River Group LLC (Naples,
FL): Steve Smidler, former
president of Kaman Distribu-
tion, has joined the mid-market
merger & acquisition frm as an
executive transaction advisor.
Smidler will focus on industri-
als, technology and distribution
companies, providing sell side,
buy side and strategic planning
assistance to Falls River Group.
Smidler was president of
Kaman Distribution from 2010 to 2017 and oversaw 14
acquisitions and two divestitures during his time there. His
more than 35 years in the industrial products sector brings
signifcant knowledge of industrial automation, electrical,
mechanical and fuid power products and value-add distribu-
tion channels as well as knowledge of international markets
and global business culture, said a Falls River Group release.
Smidler is a graduate of Purdue University with a
bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering technology. He
received a Global Executive MBA from the Fuqua School of
Business at Duke University.
DiversiTech Corp. (Duluth, GA):
Tis manufacturer of installation,
repair, and maintenance materi-
als, components and supplies for
the HVAC and electrical markets
appointed Tom Wooldridge
as general manager of the com-
pany’s Morris Products business
unit. DiversiTech acquired Mor-
ris Products in 2016 as a platform
to better focus and service the
electrical wholesale market and
to expand its line of electrical and lighting products for its
HVAC wholesaler customers.
Wooldridge comes to DiversiTech with more than 10
years of domestic and global leadership experience. He most
recently served as product line manager of LED Lighting at
Eaton’s Crouse-Hinds Division, where he led an expansion of
the product line and growth in sales. Prior to that, he served as
global sourcing coordinator/director with Gorbel Inc., where
among other achievements he instituted 6 Sigma and Lean
principles to improve operational efciencies. Wooldridge holds
a bachelor’s degree from Illinois Wesleyan University, a master’s
degree in Mandarin and Chinese Economy from the University
of Cambridge and a M.B.A. from the University of Rochester.
Acuity Brands, Inc. (Atlanta): Ed Ebrahimian has joined
the company’s Enterprise Solutions sales operations as vice
president, Business Development. Most recently, Ebrahimian
was general manager and director of the Bureau of Street
Lighting for the City of Los Angeles, managing the second
largest municipal street lighting system in the United States.
In his role with Acuity Brands, Ebrahimian will ofer his
LED streetlighting conversion insight to customers, as well
as lead Acuity Brands’ development of smart city oferings
and its outdoor Internet of Tings (IoT) program.
During Ebrahimian’s tenure, the City of Los Angeles
converted more than 180,000 streets lights to energy ef-
cient and maintenance-friendly LED lighting, and initiated
the deployment of additional technologies, such as remote
monitoring and controls.
“Ed’s prior experience with the City of Los Angeles street
lighting initiative will prove to be an invaluable asset to our
customers. Having been on the customer side of the desk, he
will lend his frst-hand, ‘lessons learned’ experience to munic-
ipalities, utilities and private entities on how to best leverage
new smart city technologies,” said Audwin Cash, senior vice
president, Enterprise Solutions, for Acuity Brands Lighting.
Service Wire Co. (Culloden, WV): Clifon Gibson has been
promoted to the position of business development manager
in the Culloden sales ofce, working in the Central Region
and Aaron Patten has joined the sales team in Culloden
as a sales representative.
Gibson has been with Service Wire for four years, most
recently working as an inside sales representative. He has a
bachelor’s degree in fnance from Marshall University. Patten
is working with customers and reps in North Dakota, South
Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Virginia.
He has a bachelor’s degree in business administration for
Ohio University.
Universal Lighting Technologies, Nashville, a
member of the Panasonic family of companies, an-
nounced a partnership with Clearwater, FL-based
Specified Lighting Sales. The agency will represent
Universal in the Tampa, FL, providing local distributors
advanced LED and ballast retrofit and replacement
solutions. Specified Lighting Sales will offer the
company’s complete product portfolio from ballast
to high-eficiency LED solutions.
“Through this partnership, we are excited to
take the next step in providing the Tampa area with
innovative LED lighting products,” said Jef Bristol,
Eastern Regional VP, Distribution Sales for Universal
Lighting Technologies.
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