Industrial Distribution's 2019 Big 50 List

A Labor of Love

Since the early 1990s, Industrial Distribution’s biggest annual feature has always been its Big 50 List. And every year, providing our audience with a snapshot of the largest distribution players in the industrial supply space is an interesting challenge. Especially in recent years, with industry consolidation and the rate of company diversification higher than ever, it’s made compiling the Big 50 a little tougher almost every year.

While the Big 50 is based solely on the previous year’s total sales for all companies, there’s more that goes into it. Distributors divesting certain components of their operations or adding new business units often causes us to reevaluate how they fit ID’s definition as an ‘industrial distributor.’ Such activity is why more than a handful of longtime Big 50 regulars are no longer on the list, and why others now appear. Plus, with more and more large distributors becoming privately acquired in recent years, some of them choose to no longer publicly share their financial information.

These factors are a challenge to keep up with, but we don’t mind, since it always makes the Big 50 an interesting project. A list in which the same 50 companies repeated their same positions year-after-year would get old fast. But thanks to the rapidly-changing nature of the industrial distribution market, the Big 50 List is in constant evolution. That’s why we’ve seen more than a handful of Big 50 companies climb six or seven spots or more in just one to two years.

As opposed to our 2017 Big 50 List — when almost all companies were reeling from the 2016 oil & gas market downturn — the 2018 and 2019 versions have had a much cheerier vibe, with the vast majority of companies posting healthy year-over-year revenue growth. With many market outlooks signaling an economic slowdown next year, it seems all distributors should be trying to make as much money as possible right now, and it’s already looking like our 2020 Big 50 will even have higher sales numbers across the board.

Congratulations to all the companies on our 2018 Big 50 List, and we at ID wish everyone continued success going forward.

— ID Executive Editor Anna Wells & Managing Editor Mike Hockett

Here's part one (Nos. 50-31), part two (30-11) and part three (top 10) of our video countdown.

Here's our 2018 Big 50 List

Here's our 2017 Big 50 List

Here's our 2016 Big 50 List

Just Missing the Cut

51. Mahar Tool Supply - $120 million

METHODOLOGY

All 2019 Big 50 List companies are ranked according to their 2018 full-year worldwide sales, and all figures are reported in USD. In some cases, foreign currency was converted based on exchange rates at the date that fiscal year ended. All Big 50 companies are based in North America. Some companies are headquartered elsewhere, but for our list, we only account for their North American operations.

We obtain information for publicly-traded companies based on their annual and quarterly reports, earning statements and company verifications. For privately-held companies, we rely on their self-reported data and follow-up communication. Recently published press releases, company website information and other news reports are also used to supplement company data for our Big 50 feature. The Big 50 interviews were conducted via email, survey and by phone by Industrial Distribution editorial staff.

We elect to refrain from listing any companies that don’t fit our criteria of an ‘industrial distributor’, which becomes more challenging each year as the market evolves. Some privately-held distributors elect to not share their revenue numbers, so for those companies, we make an educated estimate based on their most recently shared revenue figures and company news. There are several companies, including McMaster-Carr, which we acknowledge would make our Big 50 List, but haven’t shared their revenue figures in more than several years, for which we elect to not place them on our list by pure speculation.

For those of you who don’t see your company name on our list, but think you should, please contact us with your information and we’ll consider adding your company to our Big 50 pool for 2020. As always, your feedback — good or bad — is appreciated.

Executive Editor Anna Wells - [email protected]

Managing Editor MIke Hockett - [email protected]