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Whether they respect, fear or despise the largest distributor in North America, not many of Graybar's competitors or suppliers can boast the same rate of growth in sales and profits over the past few years. Supporting this surge has been Graybar's focus on several key strategies in operations, marketing, promotions, training, electronic commerce and MIS. Let's take a quick look at these areas of emphasis:
Acquisitions and internal growth. Unlike some of the other players active in the acquisition game such as WESCO, Rexel, Sonepar and CED, Graybar doesn't court attention for the acquisitions it makes and in the past didn't always announce them to the trade press. However, company execs insist it's a growth strategy that has always been a big part of its strategic plans. Indeed, in the last few months, Graybar acquired Monroe Contractors Electrical Supply, Monroe, N.C., and the All-Phase Electric Supply location in Eugene, Ore. Graybar's top...