Interline Brands

Interline Brands, Inc.
Private
Industry Wholesale/Distribution (business)/Retail
Founded 1978
Headquarters Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Key people
 Michael J. Grebe, Chairman & CEO
John Ebner, CFO
Kenneth D. Sweder, President & COO
Products plumbing, electrical, security hardware, HVAC, janitorial & sanitary products
Revenue $1.24 billion (2007)
Number of employees
 4,300
Website www.interlinebrands.com

Interline Brands, Inc., headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, is one of the United States' largest wholesale distributors and direct marketers of maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products for non-industrial businesses.[1][2]

History

Wilmar Industries was a Camden, New Jersey hardware store in 1978 with big aspirations. To grow the business, they began selling MRO products to area apartment complexes, then expanded geographically, becoming a distributor targeting multi-family housing businesses. Wilmar went public in 1996 and purchased 14 regional competing businesses before acquiring the Sexauer Group, a well-known and established distributor, in 1999. A leveraged buyout in May, 2000 took the company private in preparation for the next stage of growth. Wilmar approached Barnett, Inc. about merging because the two businesses were very similar, but each targeted a different customer base. Wilmar's customers performed facility maintenance, while Barnett sold to locksmiths, retail hardware and contractors. The two joined in September 2000 and named the umbrella company, Interline Brands.[3] Their guiding principle was to "change as little as possible about the way our customers currently do business with us".[4] Each of the businesses (including Sexauer) retained their identity from the customer's point of view, including salesmen, telephone numbers, products, etc. They realized the value of each company's brand, and preserved sales/marketing relationships built over the years. What did change was behind the scenes in accounting, distribution and administration, realizing economies of scale. In 2000, Interline had a total of 76 distribution centers, which they were able to shrink to 56 in 2004. A 319,000 sq ft (29,600 m2) national distribution center in Nashville, Tennessee was opened in 2001, reducing the inventory required at the local distribution centers and improving delivery times.[3] In late 2004 Interline went public as NYSE:IBI but was later delisted in September 2012 to become privatized.[4][5]

To further expand the business of Interline the firm acquired several distributors of cleaning supplies. It first acquired American Sanitary or AmSan in May 2006 for $127.5 million.[6] Cleansource, a regional distributor of JanSan products, was acquired in October 2010 for $60.1 million.[7] A regional supplier of cleaning and packaging solutions called JanPak was acquired in 2012 for $82 million.[8] On March 16, 2015 Interline merged AmSan, CleanSource, JanPak, Trayco, and Sexaur into a new national brand called SupplyWorks.[9]

Products and organization

The company staffs 30 showrooms throughout North America with 70 strategically placed distribution centers stocking over 30,000 products under eleven brand labels such as Hardware Express, Maintenance USA, Wilmar, U.S. Lock and Sexauer.[2] Its customer base includes:

The Interline companies offer plumbing, electrical, HVAC, security hardware and janitorial products, but nearly half of Interline's sales are plumbing products. Their goal is to provide premium products at competitive prices with same or next-day delivery. "Get It Right. Get It Now." is the company slogan. Products are sold using multiple channels: direct sales by national account representatives or field representatives, telephone sales, customer service representatives, direct marketing through flyers & catalogs, "pro centers", vendor managed inventory, and Internet-based service.[10] Most Interline Distribution Centers include a customer center for over-the-counter sales which Barnett customers prefer. In markets with a sizeable customer base but no distribution center, Interline would look for an existing single-location supply house that could be purchased and turned into a "pro center"—a small contractor showroom and pickup facility that stocks high turnover items.[3]

The brands of Interline are:

References

  1. ↑ Funk, Dale: "Interline Brands Files for IPO" Electrical Wholesaling, July 1, 2004
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Interline Brands, Inc." Hoovers Business Intelligence, Company overview
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Olsztynski, Jim: "Interline Brands’ Unique Vision" Supply House Times, May 4, 2004
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "History" Interline Brands, About Us
  5. ↑ "Interline Brands, Inc." Interline Brands, Inc. Stockholders Approve Adoption of Merger Agreement, August 28, 012
  6. ↑ "Interline Brands, Inc. Expands into the $23 Billion Sanitary Supplies Market With the Acquisition of American Sanitary (AmSan)".
  7. ↑ "Interline Brands, Inc. Announces Acquisition of CleanSource". October 29, 2010. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  8. ↑ Clinton, Michael (December 4, 2012). "Interline Brands buys JanPak for $82 million". BizJournals. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  9. ↑ Cela, Lev (March 15, 2015). "Interline Brands Launches SupplyWorks - Merges Five Brands Into One". Yahoo Finance. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Interline Brands Inc. (IBI)" Yahoo Finance

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