WESCO purchases Bruckner Supply
By Staff -- Industrial Distribution, 10/1/1998
Pittsburgh, Pa.--WESCO Distribution, Inc. formed an integrated supply division for the MRO marketplace by acquiring Bruckner Supply Co., a $225 million integrator, in September.Bruckner, headquartered in Port Washington, N.Y., provides integrated supply procurement services and outsourcing for large companies in the manufacturing and transportation industries. It will be run as a new operating division of WESCO, separate from the company's electrical distribution business.
"This is an opportunity for us to capitalize on a very large emerging market," says WESCO chairman and CEO Roy Haley. "The principal thrust of this is an investment in a growth area. We also expect some opportunities for WESCO to see an increase in the volume of industrial products it sells through a preferred cross-selling relationship with Bruckner."
According to industry consultant Frank Lynn & Associates, the integrated supply market is growing by more than 25 percent a year and exceeds $5 billion annually. Bruckner Supply is among the top MRO integrators and held 4.2 percent of the market in 1996, according to Lynn. Its customers include General Motors and United Technologies.
"They're a significant player in this market," says Haley, who adds talks between the two companies began late last spring after WESCO saw Bruckner's success winning some large accounts. That was shortly before Haley and other WESCO executives completed a $1.1 billion investor-led buyout of the number two-ranked electrical distributor.
"We knew the Bruckner name for some time but didn't fully appreciate the extent of their organization and capabilities until in the past six months we found ourselves in a competitive situation with them," he says.
WESCO has offered integrated supply services for several years to help customers cut procurement costs on indirect materials, but Haley says the buyout marks the firm's formal entrance into the arena.
He says WESCO will eventually move a large portion of its integrated supply business to the Bruckner Supply unit, but for now, will support Bruckner's expansion plans and existing contracts. Haley expects to hire "significant" numbers of new staff for the business unit, which Bruckner president Robert Rosenbaum will continue to oversee.
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