CHICAGO— The merger of Zenger's, Inc. and Crabtree Industrial Supply, two well-known small distributors in the Chicago market, became official in mid October.

The merger combines Crabtree's specialty in applied cutting tools with Zenger's focus on providing a full line of MRO products and services.

Crabtree is now the Applied Tooling division of Zenger's. Crabree president Glen Korff is manager of the new division and will work closely with Jason Zenger, vice president of Zenger's, who handles the company's daily operations.

There were no layoffs as a result of the merger. Crabtree closed its Wheeling, Ill., office and moved into Zenger's Melrose Park, Ill., location. The merged company has 20 employees.

Zenger said the deal brings applications expertise to existing Zenger's customers and a wider array of products and services to Crabtree accounts. Zenger and Korff said they began discussing the possibility of a merger three years ago.

"We realized that all of Zenger's strengths were Crabtree's weaknesses and all of Crabtree's strengths were Zenger's weaknesses," said Zenger. "Zenger's has been a successful cutting tool distributor for a long time. However, our niche has always been our ability to inventory and bundle the product with other industrial supplies … Now we have become a full-line MRO service provider with multiple application specialists on staff and a multi-million dollar inventory of maintenance and production supplies."

Zenger and Korff said the merger is just one step in the company's strategic plan to become a bigger player in the Chicago area.

"This gives us the foundation to grow into a dominant player in the Chicagoland marketplace," said Korff. "We have the product line, and the knowledge on the operations and technical side, to begin that process."

Added Zenger, "Our goal is to be the prime supplier for our customers and the prime marketing source for our suppliers."