Hydraulics Supplier Grows Across the Globe

Brennan Industries, like most suppliers, began with a single location. 

But although it remains based near its original home, the Ohio hydraulic and pneumatic fittings provider’s reach, before long, extended from coast to coast — and today, thanks to a flurry of international deals, it spans increasingly far beyond them. 

Brennan Industries' Querétaro distribution center.Brennan IndustriesThe company, now in its third generation of family leadership, was founded by Mike Brennan in 1953 and incorporated in 1960, when it was making products at its facility in Cleveland. The year before, David D. Carr had joined the family business; Carr became its president in 1973 and would ultimately spend a total of 60 years at the company — a tenure marked by expansion across North America. The company added warehouses in the Southeast, Texas and the Pacific Northwest in a single calendar year – 1986  – to join its suburban Cleveland headquarters and production and distribution site. 

Today, through a combination of expansion efforts and M&A deals, Brennan operates six distribution centers in the U.S. and five more facilities in Canada. 

The company, however, has also long had its eye on the potential of overseas markets: the same year that Carr took over, Brennan formed an international sales division — but even that would pale to its global ambitions in recent years, especially under Carr’s son, current Brennan Chairman and CEO David M. Carr. 

Brennan opened the first of what would be several offices in China in 2010, and established a manufacturing presence in the country four years later. 

In subsequent years, the company turned to an aggressive M&A strategy to help expand into more foreign markets: Brennan acquired Truflow Hydraulic Components in the west of England in 2016, then added manufacturer Miric Engineering in Britain’s Midlands region in 2019. 

Brennan Industries/Aussie Adaptors & Hydraulics P/L, Melbourne.Brennan IndustriesThose would be the predecessors to a spree of international moves in recent months: last May, the company opened a new distribution hub in central Mexico, and in November, Brennan acquired Brazilian manufacturer Coterflex Industrial. This August, the company expanded to Australia, acquiring Aussie Adaptors & Hydraulics in Melbourne. 

Brennan officials outlined specific reasons for those recent moves, but the company also pointed to a broader growth strategy that aims to expand its footprint while bolstering its capabilities and efficiency. And in the announcement of the new distribution center outside Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico, the company’s CEO may have shed some light on the continued realities of global trade and supply chains — even in an era of rising economic uncertainty, political rancor and trade protectionism. 

“As our customers expand their production facilities into different parts of the world,” Carr said in the company’s statement, “the demand for a nearby, dependable supplier becomes crucial.”