Our 10th annual special issue honors the recent growth and successful reputation of a group of independent industrial distributors.
When we look at the most-read news and blogs on industrial distribution at the end of each year, expect it to be dominated by some of the biggest names in the industry.Large distributors such as Grainger, Motion and Fastenal often make headlines for their market presence and the fact that they make the most news.
But what about companies that are too small to make it to the top 50?While dwarfed by the size of these national distributors, independent companies still account for the vast majority of the industrial supply market – even as rapid consolidation in this space has accelerated considerably in recent months.Many of these small and medium-sized distributors are family-owned and have been operating in obscurity for generations.
Tricor Industries This is why our ID started our annual watch list in 2012.While our Top 50 list is always our most anticipated feature of the year, our watch list gives us a look at a group of 50 resellers that are too small to get into big companies, but whether it’s recent growth, innovation or their A reputation as a well-run company deserves recognition.
To produce our watch list, we called on a small number of industrial distribution buying groups and cooperatives to nominate one or two member distributors for our recognition.From there, we provided those nominees with a short information questionnaire, asking the companies to provide only as much information as they were willing to share.We then used that information to create a generated small company profile, which you can find on the following pages, listed in no particular order.
Check out Tricor Industries’ branch showroom in Worcester, Ohio.Tricor Industrial We congratulate this year’s four companies for earning a place on Industrial Distribution’s 2022 Watch List and thank the buying groups, associations and cooperatives that nominated them.This year’s list is actually the shortest in the feature’s now 11-year history, but not for lack of experimentation.These industry groups have done an excellent job of nominating more than a dozen companies, but despite multiple attempts to contact the rest of the nominees through various methods, respondents are still limited.Maybe those distributors are still in mid-pandemic recovery; maybe they just want to keep a low profile; or maybe they’re just busy with operations starting in late 2021 and 2022.All this is understandable.
If you would like to be considered for next year’s watch list, please email mhocett@ien.com and we will make sure to send you a nomination form when the time comes.
From left: South Texas Hose, the management team of Craig Glasson, Gilbert Perez Sr., Sam Jenkin, Tripp Batey and Jay Glasson.south texas hose