One of the things Forbes is best known for is its reputation-based company lists, of which the business publication produces in various forms throughout the year. When these lists include at least a solid representation of wholesale distributors, MDM opts to share that with our audience.
This is the case in Forbes’ 2026 America’s Best Companies List, which was revealed on Nov. 19. Now “Best” is certainly a subjective term when it comes to the business landscape, as there are hundreds of factors that go into how a company is measured, and Fortune acknowledges this.
To create the second annual feature, Forbes said it partnered with a half-dozen data firms, collected hundreds of measures of company quality with millions of datapoints and turned them into an index to evaluate thousands of the largest public and private companies in America. Forbes then turned that index into a final list of 500 companies.
“Ultimately, we analyzed more than 100 metrics across 11 categories such as financial performance, customer sentiment, employee ratings, cybersecurity, sustainability and more,” Forbes says on its methodology explanation.
One big criteria to note is that companies must be headquartered in the U.S. and employ at least 7,000 people. Given that wholesale distribution is predominantly comprised of small- to mid-sized companies, we know this eliminates the vast majority of the industry from consideration.
Nevertheless, we also know our audience appreciates seeing where some of the industry’s leading firms slot on these types of company grading lists, which is why we continue to share them.
- Here’s Which Distributors Were Just Named “Best Companies to Sell For” (July)
- Here’s Where Distributors Rank on the 2025 Fortune 500 (June)
- Here’s Which Distributors Made Fortune’s 2025 “Most Admired” List (March, Premium)
And I’d be remiss if I didn’t promote MDM’s annual Top Distributors feature here, which ranks the industry’s largest North American-based companies by revenue within 20 different product sectors.
Berkshire Hathaway topped Forbes’ 2026 America’s Best Companies, followed by Amazon, Royal Caribbean, Morgan Stanley and Delta Air Lines in the top 5.
Distributors on Forbes’ 2026 America’s Best Companies List
Without further ado, here’s where companies that MDM considers to operate primarily as a distributor appeared on the list, and what industry Fortune categorized them as:
- McKesson — Medical Equipment & Services
- Grainger — Construction, Chemicals, Raw Materials
- Wesco International — Transportation and Logistics
- Cardinal Health — Medical Equipment & Services
- TopBuild — Construction, Chemicals, Raw Materials
- U.S. Foods — Food, Soft Beverages, Alcohol & Tobacco
- Resideo Technologies — Technology Hardware & Equipment
- Cintas — Business Services & Supplies
- Avnet — Trading Companies
- Henry Schein — Health Care Equipment & Services
- Thermo Fisher Scientific — Health Care Equipment & Services
- Builders FirstSource — Retail and Wholesale
- ABC Supply — Construction, Chemicals, Raw Materials
Noteworthy
- The Home Depot — acquired SRS Distribution for $18 billion in mid-2024, followed by GMS earlier this year for $5.5 billion. HD has bought eight different wholesale distributors since 1997.
- Lowe’s — acquired Foundation Building Materials in October for $8.8 billion in the retailer’s first major splash into the distribution sector.
- Air Liquide USA — owns industrial gases and welding supplies distributor Airgas, which it bought in 2016 for $10.3 billion
MDM’s Take
It’s not surprising to see that no distributors cracked the top 150 of Forbes’ list, as these features tend to be dominated at the top by technology, retail and financial institution firms. But what was surprising was the gap between the first two distributors on the list — McKesson at 152 and Grainger at 184 — and the next — Wesco at nearly 100 spots lower (278).
Of course, there are plenty of large distributors that meet Fortune’s list criteria that aren’t on this list. But for those that quality, they certainly want to be on there. These kinds of accolades make for great promotional material for these companies — to customers, suppliers and especially as a talent recruiting tool.
