The flow control products market received a shakeup on Monday when SunSource — one of the largest fluid power products distributors in the U.S. and Canada —announced that it has completed the acquisition of fellow large distributor Ryan Herco Flow Solutions for an undisclosed amount from Greenbriar Equity Group.
Burbank, CA-based RHFS is a national specialty distributor of flow solutions for mission-critical systems across a wide range of industrial applications. The company's portfolio of filtration products, pressure piping systems, tubing and tube fittings, pumps, valves and process instrumentation comprises an SKU count of more than 70,000 across 31 locations to 15,000+ customers. RHFS serves the markets of Aquatics, General Industrial, Water and Waste Water, Chemical Processing, Semiconductor, Life Sciences and Food & Beverage. The company had a headcount of 370 as of August 2017.
Addison, IL-based SunSource hasn't publicly disclosed its financial information since at least 2010, but Industrial Distribution estimates the company would rank around the middle of ID's 2017 Big 50 List. RHFS was ranked No. 41 with $246 in 2016 full year sales.
"Like SunSource, Ryan Herco is known for its ability to solve complex customer challenges through its deep supplier relationships and talented professionals recognized in the industry for their technical expertise and customer orientation," said David Sacher, CEO of SunSource. "This is a highly strategic and complementary combination that will broaden our product offering, enhance our end-market exposure and expand our geographic reach."
"We are extremely excited about what the future holds for the combined business," said Randy Beckwith, CEO of RHFS. "The two companies share many of the same business philosophies, including an emphasis on adding value, a focus on customer satisfaction, a commitment to investing in the development of our employees, and a relentless pursuit of continuous improvement driving sustained growth, profitability, and shareholder value. Joining forces will create greater opportunity and value for our customers, employees and suppliers."
SunSource operates through four business units — Industrial, Mobile, Service & Repair, and Process Solutions. Companies under the SunSource umbrella include: Activation, Air-Draulics, Air-Dreco, Callahan Weber, DJ Industrial, Fauver, Fluid Power Tech, Fluid Process Equipment, Ford-Gelatt, Hydraulic Specialists, Northwest, Pabco, Paragon Technologies, Perfection Servo Hydraulics, TOPSSCo, Walter Norris, Warden Fluid Dynamics, Warren, Western Hydrostatics and Wistech. SunSource says it represents momre than 300 suppliers and has more than 150,000 products.
In November of 2017, private investment firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice — the same firm that bought HD Supply Waterworks (now Core & Main) for $2.5 billion last summer — announced its acquisition of SunSource for an undisclosed amount.
In February 2017, SunSource announced a leadership transition, with David Sacher taking over as CEO, while 16-year chief executive Justin Jacobi became the company's executive chairman.
RHFS becomes the third ID Big 50 List company to be acquired since the 2017 list debuted last August. No. 34 Production Tool Supply was acquired by master wholesaler Berkshire eSupply last fall and No. 30 FCX Performance was acquired by Applied Industrial Technologies (No. 12) in Q1 of 2018. No. 22 EIS Inc. was also absorbed by fellow Genuine Parts Co. Subsidiary Motion Industies (No. 6) in Q1.
