If an extremely uncertain trade environment has made companies more skittish about spending money on acquisitions at the outset of the year – and, from all indications, it has – somebody forgot to tell Motion.
The overall pace of mergers and acquisitions has slowed way down – to its lowest level through the first two months of a calendar year in two decades, according to one analysis – but the MRO and industrial technology giant has instead gone on something of a buying spree.
It’s quickly become a trend for the Genuine Parts Company-owned distributor. After climbing to no. 2 on the ID Big 50 list of industrial distributors on the heels of its blockbuster 2022 purchase of fellow Big 50 company Kaman Distribution Group, Motion was quiet on the M&A front for more than a year — before beginning to snap up companies again in early 2024.
Last year, Motion added Buffalo electrical and automation product maker Allied Circuits and western Pennsylvania conveyor company International Conveyor and Rubber, along with a handful of companies located north of the border in Ontario: Perfetto Manufacturing and its affiliate SER Hydraulics, LSI Supply and affiliate 273 Ontario, and Stoney Creek Hydraulics.
This year, the pace has quickened, with another pair of deals for U.S. companies in the first seven weeks of 2025, each expanding the Alabama-based distributor’s reach in the West — and, in one case, even further.
In mid-January, Motion announced an agreement to acquire M.B. McKee Co. Inc., a distributor of bearings, belts, chains, motors, drives, power transmission parts and conveyor systems with three locations across Northwest Texas.
Just over two weeks later, the company reached a deal to add Maguire Bearing Company Ltd., a Honolulu-based distributor of bearings, couplings, motors and other industrial products whose reach spans four Hawaii locations and a footprint that reaches to the “surrounding Pacific Rim market.”
Motion officials noted that each business had served its respective market for decades and would strengthen the company’s operations in a pair of key regions.
The additions could also help bolster a bottom line that, like the distribution sector at large, endured a sluggish 2024: the Motion business in February reported a 2.1% decline in its 2024 sales compared to 2023 levels. Acquisitions had a 0.8% positive impact on the company’s total — a number that looks poised to grow as more and more companies enter the fold at Motion. Motion’s initial forecast for 2025 expects segment revenue growth of between 2% and 4% amid “cautious” optimism stemming from recent manufacturing indicators.
Genuine Parts Company President and CEO Will Stengel, in the company’s latest earnings call, attributed the ‘24 downturn in the Motion segment primarily to its value-added service offering and other, more capital-intensive projects, which suffered from delays in capital spending tied to a soft macroeconomic climate. Its MRO sales, by contrast, were “essentially flat” year-over-year, he said.
Despite the continued “temporary headwinds,” Stengel said the company overall is “energized” about Motion’s position in the distribution market. He also suggested that the business, which enjoys a strong balance sheet and a prominent position in a fragmented industry, isn’t done buying. Officials expected the overall company’s M&A “capital deployment” – across both its industrial and its automotive sectors – to come in between $300 million and $350 million this year.
“Our global pipeline remains robust, and we will continue to remain disciplined in pursuing opportunities that create value,” GPC Executive Vice President and COO Bert Nappier told analysts.
