Oilfield & Energy
Southern Counties Lubricants: One Name, Two Paths
Southern Counties Lubricants made the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list by staying independent while its fuel-side namesake sold to Pilot Company.
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Topic
Distributor Playbooks
Strategy teardowns of North America's top distributors — how they win, how they got here, and what the rest of the channel can learn.
Browse every playbook by MDM sector →
Oilfield & Energy
Smitty's Supply: The Family Blender Selling Its Own Rivals
Smitty's Supply made the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list in Lubricants & Fuels. Its real story: a van, a nickname, and a bet on selling against itself.
Oilfield & Energy
Senergy Petroleum: How One President Built It by Merger
Senergy Petroleum made Modern Distribution Management's 2025 Lubricants & Fuels list. Here is how three mergers under one president built it.
Oilfield & Energy
SC Fuels: 95 Years Old, Family-Branded, Berkshire-Owned
SC Fuels built a West Coast fuel and lubricants network over 95 years, then joined Pilot and Berkshire Hathaway in 2021 and kept acquiring anyway.
Oilfield & Energy
How RelaDyne Turned Motor Oil Into a Service Contract
RelaDyne made MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list in Lubricants & Fuels. Its edge isn't the oil in the drum, it's the service wrapped around it.
Oilfield & Energy
Port Consolidated: The Distributor Anchored to Actual Ports
Port Consolidated made MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list in Lubricants & Fuels by staying in Florida and building depth at its ports instead of chasing states.
Oilfield & Energy
How Pilot Thomas Logistics Built an Oilfield Fuel Giant
Pilot Thomas Logistics didn't grow from one shop. It was merged from a Permian Basin fuel jobber and a truck-stop giant's logistics arm in 2014.
Oilfield & Energy
Parman Energy Group: The 90-Year Path to Employee Ownership
Parman Energy Group made MDM's 2025 Lubricants and Fuels list. Here's how a 1930s Nashville jobber became employee-owned and bought a tractor dealer.
Oilfield & Energy
How Moove Became America's Largest Lubricant Distributor
Moove's US arm passed through four private equity owners in 14 years before a Brazilian energy group bought it and retired a 53-year-old name.
Oilfield & Energy
Liquid Tech Solutions: A Fueling Roll-Up With No Branches
Liquid Tech Solutions made MDM's 2025 Lubricants & Fuels list by skipping branches entirely, building a mobile fueling network through a five-year acquisition run.
Oilfield & Energy
Great Lakes Petroleum: A Fuel Hauler That Became a Lubricants Player
Great Lakes Petroleum made the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list in Lubricants & Fuels. Its real story is a one-truck fuel hauler's slow reinvention.
Oilfield & Energy
Dilmar Oil: The 90-Year-Old Distributor That Reclaims Its Own Oil
Dilmar Oil Company made MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list in Lubricants & Fuels. Here is how a 90-year-old family jobber built a closed-loop reclamation business.
Oilfield & Energy
Colonial Group: A Century-Old Fuel Distributor That Never Sold
Colonial Group made the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list in Lubricants & Fuels. Here is how a 1921 Savannah oil startup stayed family-run for four generations.
Oilfield & Energy
Carson Oil: 85 Years Family-Owned, Two Different Surnames
A 2025 MDM Top Distributor in Lubricants and Fuels, Carson Oil has stayed family-owned for 85 years even as ownership passed from one surname to another.
Grocery & CPG
US Foods: How a Blocked Merger Built No. 2 Distributor
US Foods lands on MDM's 2025 Food & Beverage distributor list at $37.9B. A killed Sysco merger, not a signed one, shaped how the company actually grew from there.
Grocery & CPG
How Two Rival Wine Empires Became Southern Glazer's
Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits, named in 2025's MDM Top Distributors Food & Beverage list, was built by merging two rival family firms in 2016.
Oilfield & Energy
Cadence Petroleum Group: From Service Station to Roll-Up Platform
Cadence Petroleum Group made MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list in Lubricants & Fuels. Here's how a 1947 family oil business became a PE roll-up engine.
Oilfield & Energy
How Brenntag Wins Oilfield Chemicals by Keeping Local Names
Brenntag North America made MDM's 2025 Lubricants & Fuels list. Its real edge: buy oilfield chemical specialists and keep their names on the truck.
Grocery & CPG
How RNDC Built a National Footprint, Then Sold Off a Third of It
RNDC made MDM's 2025 Food & Beverage list by merger. In 2026 it is unwinding that same footprint, and the reason why is a lesson in three-tier economics.
Grocery & CPG
Performance Food Group: Why It Walked Away From a $100B Merger
Performance Food Group made MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list in Food & Beverage. Inside the three-channel roll-up that walked away from a $100 billion merger.
Grocery & CPG
McLane: The Distributor Walmart Sold and Still Depends On
McLane Company made the 2025 MDM Top Distributors Food & Beverage list. Here is how a company Walmart sold in 2003 still supplies Walmart's shelves today.
Grocery & CPG
How Sysco Wins: Inside the Broadline Food Distribution Machine
Sysco tops the 2025 MDM Food & Beverage list. Its local-case-growth playbook and $29.1B Restaurant Depot deal reveal how the broadline giant actually competes.
Grocery & CPG
Gordon Food Service: The Distributor That Also Owns the Storefront
Gordon Food Service made MDM's 2025 Food & Beverage list while staying private. Here is the operating bet that sets it apart from Sysco and US Foods.
Grocery & CPG
Dole plc: How Two Fruit Dynasties Built One Distributor
Dole plc made MDM's 2025 Food & Beverage Top Distributors list. Its real story is a Hawaiian pineapple grower and an Irish family trader merging into one company.
Grocery & CPG
How Breakthru Beverage Grew Without Losing Family Control
Breakthru Beverage ranks on MDM's 2025 Food & Beverage list at $8.5B+. The real story: a Chicago sports family kept ownership but hired an outsider to run it.
Distributor Playbooks
Total Plastics International: 47 Years of Branch-by-Branch Growth
Total Plastics International made MDM's 2025 Top Distributors Plastics list, grown from a 1978 Kalamazoo warehouse without one disclosed acquisition.
Distributor Playbooks
ThyssenKrupp Engineered Plastics: A Name About to Disappear
A 1970 plastics shop that became a steel giant's division is now being renamed again, as its German parent spins off as an independent company.
Grocery & CPG
Ben E. Keith: The $8 Billion Distributor That Won't Say So
Ben E. Keith made the 2025 MDM Top Distributors Food & Beverage list. Here's how a private, opaque foodservice-and-beer distributor built an estimated $8B business.
Distributor Playbooks
How Professional Plastics Stayed Family-Owned for 40 Years
Professional Plastics made MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list in Plastics. How three brothers built a family-run engineering plastics distributor since 1984.
Distributor Playbooks
Polymershapes: The Distributor GE and SABIC Built First
Polymershapes lands on the 2025 MDM plastics list, but its real history is stranger: born from two firms, raised inside GE and SABIC, freed in 2017.
Distributor Playbooks
How Piedmont Plastics Keeps Finding New Markets for Old Plastic
Piedmont Plastics made the 2025 MDM Top Distributors Plastics list. Its real edge: selling the same sheet, rod, and film into whatever market booms next.
Distributor Playbooks
North American Plastics: The Rollup That Kept 40 Names
North American Plastics made the 2025 MDM Top Distributors Plastics list by refusing the one thing every rollup usually does: erase the brands it buys.
Distributor Playbooks
Interstate Plastics: A Family Distributor Picks Its Buyer
Interstate Plastics grew from a 1980 Sacramento startup into a plastics distributor, then chose a family-owned peer as its buyer instead of private equity.
Distributor Playbooks
E&T Plastics: The Fabricator That Became a Distributor
E&T Plastics made the 2025 MDM Top Distributors Plastics list. Its origin story explains a footprint that looks nothing like its bigger rivals.
Distributor Playbooks
How a Macaroni Machine Shop Became Curbell Plastics
Curbell Plastics made the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list in Plastics. Its origin story explains why the 80-plus-year-old company still isn't for sale.
MRO & Industrial
How Rudolph Bros Wins by Refusing to Just Sell Adhesive
Rudolph Bros & Co made 2025's MDM Top Distributors in Specialty Adhesives by selling technical certainty, not tape, and just went 100% employee-owned.
MRO & Industrial
How Krayden Wins by Owning the No-Fail Adhesives Niche
Krayden made the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list in Specialty Adhesives. Its real edge is technical sales for no-fail bonding, not catalog SKUs alone.
MRO & Industrial
How Integral Products Wins Without Ever Opening a Second Branch
Integral Products made MDM's 2025 Specialty Adhesives ranking from one Harbor City facility, competing on aerospace certification instead of branch count.
Distributor Playbooks
Cope Plastics: A Third-Generation Holdout in a Rolled-Up Market
Cope Plastics made the 2025 MDM Top Distributors plastics list while staying family-owned through three generations as private equity consolidates rivals.
MRO & Industrial
GracoRoberts: How a 140-Year-Old Distributor Rolled Up Aerospace
GracoRoberts made the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list for Specialty Adhesives, but the bigger story is six aerospace acquisitions in seven years.
MRO & Industrial
How Ellsworth Adhesives Wins by Selling Its Rivals' Products
Ellsworth Adhesives made MDM's 2025 Specialty Adhesives list by refusing to pick a chemistry side, stocking 50+ competing adhesive brands under one roof.
MRO & Industrial
DH Sutherland: The Family Distributor Aerospace Trusts
DH Sutherland made the 2025 MDM Top Distributors specialty adhesives list from one Oregon building. Here's how a three-generation family firm stayed independent.
Welding & Gas
Roberts Oxygen: The Last Family Firm in Industrial Gas
How Roberts Oxygen stayed family-owned for three generations while Airgas, Praxair, and Linde consolidated the rest of the industrial gas industry.
Welding & Gas
How Red Ball Oxygen Stayed Family-Owned Through Consolidation
Red Ball Oxygen made MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list in Gases & Welding Supplies. How a Shreveport family business held its ground as the vertical rolled up.
MRO & Industrial
How Associated Industries Wins by Staying in One Wichita Warehouse
Associated Industries made MDM's 2025 Specialty Adhesives list from a single Wichita site, then quietly became a manufacturer of its own adhesive brand.
MRO & Industrial
Applied Adhesives: Built By Four Straight PE Owners
Applied Adhesives made the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list in Specialty Adhesives after 20 years and four consecutive private equity owners. Here's the playbook.
Welding & Gas
O.E. Meyer: The Gas Distributor That Never Sold Out
O.E. Meyer made the 2025 MDM Top Distributors gases and welding supplies list. Its real story is the succession bet almost nobody else in the sector made.
Welding & Gas
Norco: The Welding Gas Distributor Employees Actually Own
Norco made MDM's 2025 top gas and welding distributors list. The sharper story is how a Kissler family business became 35% employee-owned in 2015.
Welding & Gas
nexAir: How a Family Gas Distributor Became a Linde Unit
nexAir grew for 80 years as a family business, then became a wholly owned Linde subsidiary in 2023, and still runs and acquires like an independent.
Welding & Gas
How Meritus Gas Partners Wins by Not Becoming Airgas
Meritus Gas Partners made MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list in Gases & Welding Supplies by rolling up welding-gas distributors without erasing them.
Welding & Gas
How Matheson Gave Up Its Own Name After 99 Years
Matheson lands on MDM's 2025 welding-gas list, but the deeper story is a 1927 US gas pioneer folding its name into a Japanese parent this year.
Welding & Gas
Linde: The Distributor That Bought Back Its Confiscated Half
Linde (Americas) lands on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list for Gases & Welding Supplies. Its real competitive edge traces back to a century-old corporate split.
Welding & Gas
Indiana Oxygen: 111 Years of Betting Against the Roll-Up
Founded in 1915 and still Brant family-run, Indiana Oxygen self-funds its growth and builds its own gas plants while rivals consolidate under PE.
Welding & Gas
General Air: How a Denver Gas Distributor Stayed Independent
General Air made the 2025 MDM Top Distributors gases and welding list without ever leaving Colorado. Here is how 55 years of family and ESOP ownership got it there.
Welding & Gas
Gas and Supply: The Independent Airgas Never Bought
Gas and Supply made the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list in Gases & Welding Supplies by staying private while its whole sector rolled up into three global majors.
Welding & Gas
Arc3 Gases: A Family Roll-Up in a Consolidated Industry
Arc3 Gases ranks among 2025's top welding-gas distributors per MDM. How a 2013 merger of two family firms built a 60-branch, still-independent player.
Medical & Dental
Owens & Minor: The Distributor That Sold Its Own Name
Owens & Minor ranked #7 in Pharma & Healthcare on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list, then sold its own founding business and brand name to private equity.
Medical & Dental
Henry Schein's Quiet Handoff After Four Decades of One CEO
Henry Schein ranks No. 6 on MDM's 2025 Pharma & Healthcare list. The real story: two CEOs in 90 years, 200 acquisitions, and a 2025 handoff to an outsider.
Welding & Gas
AmeriGas: The Propane Giant That Had to Buy Itself Back
AmeriGas built America's largest propane network as a public partnership, then watched its own parent unwind that structure to save the business it created.
Welding & Gas
American Welding & Gas: The Roll-Up That Stayed Family-Owned
American Welding & Gas made MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list by acquiring its way through a decade of gas-industry consolidation, without ever selling out.
Medical & Dental
Thermo Fisher Scientific: How the Distributor Also Builds
Thermo Fisher Scientific ranks #4 in MDM's 2025 Pharma & Healthcare distributors. Here's how a $42.9B instrument maker also became the channel.
Medical & Dental
Medline: How a Family Distributor Ended Up Public Anyway
Medline spent 55 years avoiding public markets, sold for $34B in 2021, then IPO'd anyway in 2025 for even more. Here's the strategy behind that detour.
Medical & Dental
How Cardinal Health Wins by Owning What It Delivers
Cardinal Health ranks #3 on MDM's 2025 Pharma & Healthcare list. A look at the decay-driven logistics and 2024 buying spree behind its moat.
Jan/San & Packaging
Pollock Orora: A Family Distributor Sold Twice in Six Years
Pollock survived 100 years as a family business, then changed owners twice in six years. Here is what its ownership churn reveals about JanSan consolidation.
Jan/San & Packaging
Network Distribution: The JanSan Giant That Isn't One Company
Network Distribution ranks #6 in JanSan on the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list. Its real edge is an alliance model now being tested by a packaging merger.
Medical & Dental
McKesson: How the Biggest Pharma Distributor Keeps Winning
McKesson tops MDM's 2025 Pharma & Healthcare list at $276.7B by owning oncology demand while quietly offloading its lowest-margin commodity business.
Medical & Dental
Cencora's Bet: Sell the Warehouses, Buy the Physicians
Cencora ranks #2 in MDM's 2025 Pharma & Healthcare list. The real story is what the distribution giant is shedding, and what it is buying instead.
Jan/San & Packaging
Veritiv: The Distributor That Print Decline Reinvented
Veritiv ranks #4 on MDM's 2025 JanSan list almost by accident. Here's how a paper-and-print consolidator became a packaging and facility-solutions distributor.
Jan/San & Packaging
How TricorBraun Wins Without Selling a Drop of Cleaner
TricorBraun lands at #5 on MDM's 2025 JanSan Top Distributors list while selling no chemicals or paper goods at all, just the containers that hold them.
Jan/San & Packaging
BradyPlus: How Five Private Equity Firms Built One Distributor
BradyPlus ranks third in JanSan on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list. Its real story is a decade of family businesses merging under shared PE ownership.
Jan/San & Packaging
Uline: How the JanSan Leader Wins Without Deals
Uline tops MDM's 2025 JanSan distributor list with no disclosed revenue, no acquisitions, and no discounts. Here is the operating model behind that.
Safety & PPE
Levitt-Safety: 90 Years of Staying Independent in Safety
How a 90-year-old, family-owned Oakville distributor built its own manufacturing arm and joined a buying group instead of selling to private equity.
Jan/San & Packaging
How Imperial Dade Built a JanSan Giant, Then Renamed It
Imperial Dade ranked No. 2 in JanSan on MDM's 2025 list, then merged with rival BradyPLUS to form a $10B distributor and gave up its own hard-won name.
Safety & PPE
Arbill: A Family-Owned Safety Distributor's Pivotal Bet
Arbill ranked #19 in Safety on the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list. Here's how a third-generation glove laundry became a safety-outcomes company.
Safety & PPE
Stauffer Glove and Safety: Five Generations, Still Family-Run
How Stauffer Glove and Safety, family-run since 1907 and ranked #15 in Safety on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list, stayed independent as its channel consolidated.
Safety & PPE
How SPI Health and Safety Grew by Buying, Not Building
SPI Health and Safety ranks #14 on MDM's 2025 Safety list. Its real edge is a five-decade acquisition engine and a pipeline built to absorb it, not branch count.
Safety & PPE
EWIE Group: The Safety Distributor That Isn't One
EWIE Group ranks #17 on MDM's 2025 Safety distributors list, yet its real business is tool cribs and vendor-managed inventory, not PPE catalogs.
Safety & PPE
How Mallory Safety and Supply Built a Roll-Up Without PE
Mallory Safety and Supply ranks among MDM's top safety distributors after 20 acquisitions since 2005, all funded without private equity or a stock listing.
Safety & PPE
Magid Glove & Safety: Two Founders, One Family's Firm
Magid ranks #9 on MDM's 2025 Safety list. How a 1946 Chicago glove shop became a manufacturer-distributor still run by one founding family, four generations on.
Fasteners
Field Fastener's 35-Year Bet on Staying Family-Owned
Field Fastener ranked #17 on MDM's 2025 fastener distributor list. Here's how three Derry family generations grew it 20% a year without private equity.
Safety & PPE
How Aramsco Built One Distribution Engine From Five Niches
Aramsco cracked MDM's 2025 Safety and JanSan rankings by running five niche categories as one contractor customer base, then buying rivals' fallout.
Fasteners
EFC International Wins By Distributing to the Distributors
EFC International ranks #12 among fastener distributors on MDM's 2025 list by selling almost nothing to end users. Here's the master-distributor model behind that.
Fasteners
Copper State Bolt & Nut: The Family Firm That Never Sold
Copper State Bolt & Nut ranks #15 on MDM's 2025 Top Fastener Distributors list. Here is how a family-owned, women-led firm grew without selling out.
Fasteners
How Bossard Wins Fastener Distribution Without Chasing Scale
Bossard ranks #13 on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors fasteners list. Its edge isn't branch count or vending fleets, it's engineering embedded in the part number.
Electronic Components
How TTI Inc Built a Specialist Empire Inside Berkshire Hathaway
TTI Inc ranks #6 on MDM's 2025 electronics distributor list. Here is how a Fort Worth components house became Berkshire Hathaway's quiet federation of specialists.
Electronic Components
How Mouser Electronics Became the Design Engineer's Distributor
Mouser ranks #7 in Electronics on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list. How a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary built its edge around design engineers, not factories.
Electronic Components
Future Electronics: The Zero-Debt Distributor Enters a New Era
How Future Electronics built a private, debt-free global components distributor from a 1968 Montreal storefront, then sold it after 55 years.
Electronic Components
How DigiKey Built an Electronics Empire Without Branches
DigiKey ranks #5 in Electronics on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list. How a family-owned company in rural Minnesota built a one-warehouse global moat.
Electronic Components
WPG Americas and the Holding Company That Competes With Itself
WPG Americas ranks No. 3 in electronics per MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list, 18 years after founding, backed by a parent built to out-compete itself.
Electronic Components
Avnet Runs Two Distribution Businesses Under One Roof
Avnet ranks #2 on MDM's 2025 Electronics distributor list. Its real edge is running a low-margin broadline arm and a high-margin design business as separate brands.
Electronic Components
How Arrow Electronics Turned Every Acquisition Into a New Capability
Arrow Electronics ranks #1 in electronics on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list. Here's how a Radio Row parts shop built the channel's most durable M&A engine.
Pumps & Fluid Power
How Hydraquip Turned Employee Ownership Into a Buying Machine
Hydraquip ranks #10 in fluid power on the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list. Its real edge is an ESOP structure built to keep acquiring, not get acquired.
MRO & Industrial
Bearing Headquarters Company: Family-Owned in a Rolled-Up Sector
Bearing Headquarters Company ranks #10 in power transmission on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list, still family-owned after 90 years of buying machine shops.
Pumps & Fluid Power
Echelon Supply and Service: How a Hose Roll-Up Erased a Name
Echelon Supply and Service ranks #7 on MDM's 2025 Hose list. Its real story: a 42-year founder's brand dissolved into a four-company PE platform.
Pumps & Fluid Power
Berendsen Fluid Power: A Distributor That Builds What It Sells
Berendsen Fluid Power ranks No. 9 in MDM's 2025 Fluid Power rankings by running a lean two-hub network and manufacturing its own power units.
Plumbing & PVF
Reece USA: A Melbourne Family's $1.9 Billion American Bet
Reece USA ranks #3 in plumbing on the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list. Here is how a 105-year-old Australian family business built it through the MORSCO acquisition.
MRO & Industrial
How IBT Industrial Solutions Stayed Independent for 75 Years
IBT Industrial Solutions ranks ninth on MDM's 2025 Power Transmission list. Here is how a third-generation family distributor avoided the PE roll-up wave.
Waterworks & Utility
Core & Main: The Home Depot Castoff That Now Runs PVF
Core & Main topped PVF on the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list. Its origin story runs through Home Depot, a 2007 buyout, and a 2020 reunion it wasn't invited to.
HVAC/R
Watsco: The HVAC Distributor That Owns a Piece of Its Suppliers
MDM ranks Watsco #1 in HVACR distribution. Its edge: a Carrier joint venture, 36% e-commerce sales, and 50 years of family control amid a consolidating market.
Building Materials
Richards Building Supply: Staying Family-Owned in a Rollup Era
How Richards Building Supply grew from one Chicago branch to 60+ locations while staying family-owned as rival distributors sold to Home Depot and QXO.
HVAC/R
How R.E. Michel Stayed Family-Run Through 90 Years in HVACR
R.E. Michel ranks #4 on the 2025 MDM HVACR list. Ninety years after a Baltimore oil-burner shop, the Michel family still owns the company outright today.
HVAC/R
How The Master Group Wins by Staying an HVAC-R Specialist
The Master Group ranked fifth in HVACR on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list. Here's how a Quebec-based specialist is buying its way into the U.S.
Building Materials
Northern Tool + Equipment: The Retailer That Builds Its Own Brands
Northern Tool + Equipment ranks BM #18 on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list. Its edge: owning the brands it sells, not just the shelves that hold them.
Building Materials
Lansing Building Products' Third-Generation Bet That Doubled It
Lansing Building Products ranks #17 on MDM's 2025 building-materials list. How a third-generation family firm used insurer capital to double its branch network.
Building Materials
How Gulfeagle Supply Stayed Independent While Rivals Sold Out
Gulfeagle Supply ranks BM #19 on the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list. Here's how the family-owned roofing distributor grew while its biggest rivals got bought.
Building Materials
UFP Industries: One Wood Engine, Two Distribution Businesses
UFP Industries lands on the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list twice. The reason is a single lumber platform sliced into three unrelated markets.
Building Materials
TopBuild: How an Insulation Roll-Up Became One Itself
TopBuild ranked #15 on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors building-materials list. Weeks later, the serial acquirer became QXO's biggest acquisition yet.
Building Materials
BlueLinx Holdings: Escaping the Lumber Cycle One Deal at a Time
BlueLinx ranks #14 on MDM's 2025 building-materials list. Its real strategy is a decade-long bet to out-grow commodity lumber's boom-bust swings.
Building Materials
SiteOne Landscape Supply: Rolling Up a $25 Billion Market
SiteOne ranks BM #10 on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list. How a private-equity carve-out became the landscape industry's only national consolidator.
Building Materials
Kodiak Building Partners: The Roll-Up That Got Rolled Up
Kodiak Building Partners ranked #13 among MDM's 2025 top building-materials distributors, then became proof that the roll-up model rolls up its own.
Building Materials
GMS Inc: The Wallboard Roll-Up That Got Rolled Up
GMS ranked BM #9 on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list after 50+ acquisitions built it into a wallboard giant, then became 2025's building materials M&A prize.
Building Materials
Foundation Building Materials: A Roll-Up Lowe's Bought for $8.8B
FBM ranks BM #12 on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list. Its real story is fourteen years of ownership changes that ended with Lowe's paying $8.8 billion.
Building Materials
US LBM: The Building-Materials Roll-Up That Refuses to Rebrand
US LBM ranks #5 in building materials on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list. Its real edge: buying 80-plus lumberyards and never renaming a single one.
Building Materials
Boise Cascade: The Lumber Giant That Sold Its Own Name
Boise Cascade ranks #8 on MDM's 2025 building-materials list. Its real story is a near-liquidation, a buyout, and a name it had to buy back.
Building Materials
84 Lumber: The Family Distributor That Never Sold Out
84 Lumber ranks #6 in building materials on the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list. Here is how a family-owned lumber yard reached $6.3B without a single PE dollar.
Building Materials
SRS Distribution: The Roll-Up Home Depot Bought and Kept Rolling
SRS Distribution ranks #3 in building materials on MDM's 2025 list. Owned by Home Depot since 2024, the roofing roll-up just outbid a rival consolidator to buy GMS.
Building Materials
QXO: How Brad Jacobs Turned Beacon Into His Next Roll-Up
QXO ranks #4 in MDM's 2025 building materials list, but the name masks the real story: a 97-year-old distributor absorbed into Brad Jacobs' latest roll-up machine.
Building Materials
Builders FirstSource: From Lumberyard Rollup to Buyback Machine
Builders FirstSource ranks #2 on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list. How a Pulte spinout became a $16B consolidator that buys back more stock than lumberyards.
Building Materials
ABC Supply: Why Staying Private Is the Whole Strategy
ABC Supply topped MDM's 2025 building-materials ranking at $20.7B in revenue. The real story is why it never sold while its two biggest rivals did.
Plumbing & PVF
Locke Supply Co: How an Employee-Owned Distributor Wins
Locke Supply Co ranks Elec #39 on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list. Here's how a 100% employee-owned wholesaler built 200+ branches without a PE backer.
Electrical
Edges Electrical Group Chose Cooperation Over a Buyout
Edges Electrical Group ranks #40 on MDM's 2025 electrical distributor list. Its history: two Northern California rivals merged, then chose a buying group over a sale
MRO & Industrial
DGI Supply: The Distributor Born Inside a Manufacturer
DGI Supply ranks No. 23 on MDM's 2025 MRO Top Distributors list, a century-old, still family-owned distributor that grew up inside a toolmaker.
Electrical
United Electric Supply: Growth Funded by Employee Ownership
United Electric Supply ranks #36 among electrical distributors on MDM's 2025 list. Its real edge is using ESOP structure as an acquisition currency.
Electrical
How Schaedler Yesco Turned a Family Firm Into an ESOP Powerhouse
Schaedler Yesco ranks #37 on MDM's 2025 electrical distributor list. Its real story is a century-old family firm that became employee-owned without selling out.
Electrical
Loeb Electric: 110 Years Independent in a Rolled-Up Trade
Loeb Electric hit #35 on the 2025 MDM electrical distributor list from four stores in one metro. Here is how a third-generation family business got there.
Electrical
IEWC: The Employee-Owned Wire Distributor Buying Upward
IEWC ranks #38 on MDM's 2025 electrical list. Its real story is a 1985 ESOP bet and a 2025 pivot from distributing wire to manufacturing it.
Electrical
How Inline Electric Supply Chose Employees Over a Buyer
Ranked #32 in electrical on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list, Inline Electric Supply grew from one Alabama branch to 41 by staying employee-owned.
Electrical
How Granite City Electric Stayed Family-Owned for a Century
Granite City Electric ranks #34 on MDM's 2025 electrical list. Its real story is how a 1923 family business kept growing without selling out.
Electrical
Colonial Electric Supply: The Distributor That Restarted Itself
How Colonial Electric Supply, No. 31 on MDM's 2025 electrical list, rebuilt itself from a dead company and stayed family-owned through two near-misses.
Electrical
How Wholesale Electric Supply Stayed Family-Owned for 76 Years
Wholesale Electric Supply is #26 on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors electrical list. Here's how three generations of one Houston family kept it that way.
Electrical
Werner Electric Supply's Quiet Climb Up the National Rankings
Founded in 1948 in Appleton, Wisconsin, Werner Electric Supply cracked MDM's 2025 electrical Top Distributors list by following industrial demand, not population.
Electrical
How State Electric Supply Stays Independent in a Rolled-Up Trade
State Electric Supply ranks #28 on MDM's 2025 electrical distributor list. Here is how a family-owned house from Huntington, WV competes without selling out.
Electrical
Green Mountain Electric Supply's Quiet Roll-Up of the Northeast
How a family-owned Vermont electrical distributor became one of the industry's most active acquirers without ever selling to private equity.
Electrical
Main Electric Supply: One House, Three Independent Brands
Main Electric Supply hit #22 on the 2025 MDM electrical list by staying private and running three branch brands under one roof. Here is the model.
Electrical
Kirby Risk: A Century-Old Family Distributor Still Winning
Kirby Risk ranks #25 on MDM's 2025 electrical distributor list. A century in, the company is still Risk-family led, and that tension is the whole story here.
Electrical
How Dealers Electrical Supply Wins Without Showing Its Numbers
Dealers Electrical Supply, #24 on the 2025 MDM Top Distributors electrical list, has run 80 years as a private, employee-owned firm that never discloses revenue.
Electrical
Wholesale Electric Supply: Winning Quietly in a Roll-Up Era
Wholesale Electric Supply ranks #18 on MDM's 2025 electrical list. Here is how a family-owned Texarkana distributor competes without selling out.
Electrical
How Van Meter Stayed Independent for Almost 100 Years
Van Meter Inc. ranks #20 on MDM's 2025 electrical list. Here is how a 97-year-old employee-owned distributor avoided the industry's consolidation wave.
Electrical
How Turtle Stayed Family-Owned for a Century in Electrical
Turtle ranks #19 in electrical on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list. Its real story is a century of family ownership run mostly by three generations of women.
Electrical
Scott Electric: How an Independent Distributor Stays That Way
Scott Electric ranks 21st among US electrical distributors on the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list. Here is the model behind an 80-year independent run.
Electrical
How Lonestar Electric Supply Built a Top-15 Player in a Decade
Lonestar Electric Supply cracked MDM's 2025 top 15 electrical distributors just 11 years after founding. Here is the operating model behind the speed.
Electrical
Kendall Electric's Growth Model: One ESOP Buys Another
Kendall Electric ranks #13 on MDM's 2025 electrical list by growing through acquiring fellow employee-owned distributors instead of selling to private equity.
Electrical
Gresco Utility Supply: The Distributor That Also Sells Drones
Gresco Utility Supply ranks #16 on MDM's 2025 electrical list. Its real edge is a second business selling drones and robots to the same co-ops.
Electrical
U.S. Electrical Services: The Rollup That Kept Every Name
U.S. Electrical Services ranks #10 among electrical distributors on the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list. Here is how a near-failed rollup became a durable one.
Electrical
McNaughton-McKay: The ESOP That Built a Distributor Federation
How a 115-year-old Detroit electrical distributor quietly assembled four sister companies into an employee-owned federation, not a private-equity roll-up.
Electrical
Elliott Electric Supply Wins by Building, Not Buying
Elliott Electric Supply ranks No. 11 on MDM's 2025 electrical distributors list. Its edge: growing branch by branch while rivals grow by acquisition.
Electrical
Crescent Electric: The Distributor That Never Renames What It Buys
Crescent Electric ranks No. 12 on MDM's 2025 electrical distributor list. Its real strategy: buy strong regional players and keep their names.
Electrical
How City Electric Supply Grew by Cloning Branches, Not Buying Rivals
City Electric Supply ranks #8 among U.S. electrical distributors on MDM's 2025 list, built almost entirely through organic branch openings, not acquisitions.
Electrical
Border States: The Electrical Distributor Betting on Itself
Border States ranks #7 on MDM's 2025 electrical list. Its real edge: full employee ownership and the confidence to just quit its buying group.
Datacom & Networking
ADI Global Distribution Is Finally Its Own Company
ADI Global Distribution ranks #6 on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list. After 97 years as a subsidiary, it starts trading independently in August 2026.
Electrical
Sonepar: How the Largest Electrical Distributor Stays Family-Run
Sonepar ranks #2 in Modern Distribution Management's 2025 electrical list. Its edge is a family-owned roll-up that refuses to rebrand what it buys.
Electrical
Rexel: The Distributor That Said No to Its Own Playbook
Rexel ranks No. 5 on MDM's 2025 electrical distributor list. The real story is a 60-year roll-up strategy nearly turned back on itself by a rival acquirer.
MRO & Industrial
Martin Supply: 90 Years Family-Owned, Still Buying Others
Martin Supply has run family-owned since 1934. On the 2025 MDM Top Distributors lists, the fourth generation is the one doing the acquiring, not the selling.
Electrical
CED: The Electrical Distributor That Won't Merge Its Names
CED ranks #3 among U.S. electrical distributors per MDM, yet runs 700-plus branches that still trade under the names of the companies it bought.
Pumps & Fluid Power
How Motion & Flow Control Products Wins by Betting on One Brand
MFCP ranks #6 in MDM's 2025 Hose list. Its edge: becoming Parker Hannifin's largest US distributor by depth on one brand, not breadth across many.
Pumps & Fluid Power
Evolution Motion Solutions: erasing a century of brand names
Evolution Motion Solutions ranks #47 on MDM's Industrial Supply list and #12 in Fluid Power. It retired two century-old distributor names to build one platform.
Pumps & Fluid Power
Bridgestone HosePower: How a Tire Giant Wins in Hose
Bridgestone HosePower ranked #4 in Hose on the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list. Here is how a tire manufacturer built a hose-distribution powerhouse.
Pumps & Fluid Power
Tencarva Machinery: Growth by Acquisition, Led From Within
Tencarva Machinery ranks on the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list. Here is how a PE-backed pump distributor keeps growing without losing its culture.
MRO & Industrial
Purvis Industries: The Distributor Built as Twelve Companies
Purvis Industries lands two spots on the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list by running as twelve specialized units instead of one general industrial brand.
Pumps & Fluid Power
LGG Industrial: A Hose Distributor Reclaims Its Own Name
LGG Industrial ranks on the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list. Its real story is a 90-year rubber lineage that got absorbed, then bought its name back.
Electronic Components
Bisco Industries: 53 Years Under One Founder's Control
Bisco Industries ranks on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list while founder Glen Ceiley still holds roughly 96% voting control, rare in electronics distribution.
Pumps & Fluid Power
Motion & Control Enterprises: The Repair-Shop Roll-Up
How Motion & Control Enterprises turned a 1951 lubrication franchise into a 62-location fluid power distributor by acquiring repair shops, not just warehouses.
Fasteners
How Incora Built a Fastener Giant, Then Nearly Lost It
Incora fused two century-old fastener distributors into a single giant, then a leveraged buyout nearly broke it. Here's how it survived Chapter 11.
Fasteners
Endries International: The Fastener Distributor Buying Its Rivals
Endries International ranks #9 in fasteners on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list. How a family-run Wisconsin bolt shop became its own roll-up engine.
Pumps & Fluid Power
Singer Industrial: A Roll-Up That Won't Erase Its Brands
Singer Industrial ranks No. 3 in Hose on MDM's 2025 list. Its real edge is Coordinated Autonomy: buying old rubber and hose shops without renaming a single truck.
MRO & Industrial
How R.S. Hughes Wins Without a Single Headline Acquisition
R.S. Hughes lands on three of MDM's 2025 Top Distributors lists yet grows through its employee-ownership structure and a custom-conversion arm, not roll-ups.
MRO & Industrial
Kimball Midwest: The MRO Distributor With No Storefronts
Kimball Midwest ranks across four 2025 MDM lists without a single retail branch. Here is how a third-generation family business wins on trucks, not stores.
MRO & Industrial
Descours & Cabaud: The 240-Year Distributor That Never Rebrands
Descours & Cabaud lands twice on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list. Its real edge is a 240-year-old French family owner that never renames what it buys.
MRO & Industrial
Wajax: The Grocery Empire That Quietly Built an Industrial Giant
Wajax lands three 2025 MDM Top Distributors placements. Its stranger story: two decades spent inside a Canadian grocery conglomerate's portfolio.
Plumbing & PVF
How Hajoca Turns 450 Branches Into Owner-Run Businesses
Hajoca ranks #4 in MDM's 2025 plumbing distributor list by treating branch managers as owners across 60+ trade names, then buying HVAC scale to match.
Electrical
EIS Inc: The Electrical Distributor That Outlasts Its Owners
EIS Inc ranks No. 34 in Specialty Adhesives on the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list. Three owners since 2019 have run the same acquisition playbook.
Fasteners
Optimas: The Fastener Roll-Up That Chose to Un-Roll Itself
Optimas spent two decades rolling up fastener makers into a global network, then in 2026 split itself in two. Here is why that bet makes sense.
Fasteners
Boeing Distribution: How Two Buyouts Built an Aerospace Giant
Boeing Distribution ranks #6 in fasteners on the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list. Here's how an airframe maker ended up owning its own parts channel.
MRO & Industrial
BlackHawk Industrial: The Distributor Built by Acquisition
BlackHawk Industrial ranked No. 31 on MDM's Industrial Supplies list and No. 14 in MRO. Here is how a 2010 roll-up got there by buying, not building.
Fasteners
AFC Industries: Same Playbook, Three Different Owners
AFC Industries ranks #7 in Fasteners on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list. Three private equity owners later, its buy-and-build model has only sped up.
Building Materials
White Cap: The Concrete Distributor Built by Serial M&A
White Cap ranks No. 7 on MDM's 2025 Building Materials list. Here's how a rollup sold twice became North America's concrete-supply consolidator.
Plumbing & PVF
F.W. Webb: How a Family-Owned Distributor Outlasted 160 Years
F.W. Webb ranks #6 in Plumbing and #7 in HVACR on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list. Here's how a Depression-era buyout built a 160-year family dynasty.
Oilfield & Energy
Edgen Murray: Patient Capital in the Oilfield Steel Business
Edgen Murray ranks PVF #5 and IS #26 on the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list. Its real edge traces to who owns it, and why that owner never sold.
Plumbing & PVF
Winsupply: The Distributor Built Like 680 Small Businesses
Winsupply hit $7.9B not by centralizing branches like its peers, but by giving each one away in pieces. Here is how that bet from 1958 still shapes it.
Electronic Components
RS Group: The Global Distributor Hiding in Plain Sight
RS Group ranked on three 2025 MDM Top Distributors lists. Its US business spent 95 years under other people's names before the parent finally claimed it.
Pumps & Fluid Power
OTC Industrial Technologies: One Name, Forty Brands
OTC Industrial Technologies ranks on three 2025 MDM Top Distributors lists. Its real story is a 1963 family firm that became a 40-brand roll-up.
MRO & Industrial
BDI: How a Family Holding Company Built a Bearing Giant
BDI ranks #3 in Power Transmission on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list. Its real story is who still owns it, and why that has never changed.
MRO & Industrial
Global Industrial: The Distributor That Undid Its Own Empire
Global Industrial ranked IS #21, MRO #10 and JanSan #12 on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list. Here's how it undid its own retail empire to get there.
MRO & Industrial
Distribution Solutions Group: The Roll-Up Going Full Circle
Distribution Solutions Group hit MDM's 2025 Top Distributors lists in four verticals. Its stranger story is a reverse merger now unwinding itself.
MRO & Industrial
Berkshire Tool Supply Group: Wholesaler for Independents
How a 1951 Detroit tool store became Berkshire Hathaway's bet on arming independent distributors instead of replacing them, per MDM's 2025 rankings.
Electrical
How Wesco Became the Distributor Wiring the AI Data Center Boom
Wesco tops MDM's 2025 electrical rankings. Here's how a 1922 Westinghouse spinoff turned a merger of equals into the backbone of the AI buildout.
Pumps & Fluid Power
SunSource: How an Oil Company's Side Bet Built a Giant
SunSource ranks #1 in Hose and #2 in Fluid Power on the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list. Its path there ran through Sunoco and four private equity owners.
Fasteners
How The Hillman Group Turned Screws Into a Robotics Business
Hillman ranks No. 3 on MDM's 2025 fastener distributors list. Its real edge: using bolt-and-nut shelf space to place a hidden kiosk business.
Pumps & Fluid Power
DXP Enterprises: One CEO's 30-Year Run of Serial Tuck-Ins
DXP Enterprises spans five 2025 MDM Top Distributors lists. Its real edge is a 30-year CEO tenure fueling a disciplined tuck-in acquisition machine.
Electrical
Graybar: The Electrical Distributor Nobody Can Buy
Graybar ranks #4 on MDM's 2025 electrical distributors list at $11.6B. Its real edge is a 100-year-old employee-ownership structure none of its rivals share.
Plumbing & PVF
How Ferguson Outgrew the British Company That Bought It
Ferguson tops MDM's 2025 Plumbing list at No. 1. The stranger story: it grew big enough to rename, then shed, the UK parent that once owned it.
Oilfield & Energy
How DNOW Bought a Bigger Rival to Reshape PVF Distribution
DNOW ranked #4 in PVF distribution on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list, then turned around and acquired the #3 player, MRC Global, outright.
Fasteners
Würth Industry North America: A Roll-Up That Stayed a Federation
Würth Industry North America ranks No. 2 in fasteners on MDM's 2025 list. Its real edge is patient family ownership and a roll-up that never merged its brands.
Safety & PPE
Vallen Distribution: From Family Safety Firm to Serial Acquirer
Vallen Distribution ranks in the 2025 MDM Top Distributors. Its real story: a 1947 family safety firm passed through three owners, then became the buyer.
MRO & Industrial
MSC Industrial: The Founding Family That Chose to Let Go
MSC Industrial ranks on 2025's MDM Top Distributors lists across four categories. Here is how three generations of one family built it, then stepped back.
Oilfield & Energy
MRC Global: A Century of Roll-Ups Ends in Its Own
MRC Global built a century-long PVF empire by merging with rivals. In late 2025 the same playbook folded it into DNOW. Here's how that arc unfolded.
MRO & Industrial
McMaster-Carr: How the Silent Giant of MRO Wins
McMaster-Carr ranks on six 2025 MDM lists while giving zero interviews. How a 124-year-old family firm built the best catalog in MRO and never explains itself.
Building Materials
How Home Depot Built a Distributor It Refuses to Brand
Home Depot Pro ranks on three 2025 MDM Top Distributors lists. Its real edge is a house-of-brands M&A engine it once tried to avoid building.
MRO & Industrial
How Applied Industrial Technologies Turned Bearings Into Robots
Applied Industrial lands on six 2025 MDM Top Distributors lists. Here's how a 1923 Cleveland bearings house built a robotics and automation engine.
MRO & Industrial
Motion Industries: Built by GPC, About to Fly on Its Own
Motion Industries tops MDM's 2025 power transmission ranking, and after 50 years built quietly inside GPC, it is about to become its own standalone public company.
MRO & Industrial
How W.W. Grainger Wins by Competing Against Itself
Grainger tops MDM's 2025 Industrial, MRO, and Safety rankings by running two opposite distribution models at once, one high-touch, one low-touch.
Fasteners
How Fastenal Outgrew Its Own Name and Still Wins
Fastenal ranks #1 in Fasteners on the 2025 MDM Top Distributors list, but fasteners are now under a third of its sales. Here is the model that replaced them.
Welding & Gas
How Airgas Fought Off One Buyer, Then Chose Another
Airgas lands on MDM's 2025 Top Distributors list at No. 3 in Industrial Supply. Its real lesson is a takeover it beat, then a deal it wanted.