“When you’re winning, you feel good.”

That’s what Chuck Delph, CEO of industrial and MRO supplies distributor Vallen told me in the latest MDM Podcast.

The team at Vallen must be feeling pretty good lately, given the amount of wins that the company has achieved over the past several years.

Charlotte, NC-based Vallen is riding the momentum of its $350 million acquisition of Wesco Integrated Supply (WIS) — the MRO supplies unit formerly of electrical distributor Wesco — which closed April 1. But that’s just one component. Here’s a quick recap:

• Formerly part of France-based electrical distributor Sonepar, Vallen became independent in mid-2022 when it was bought by private equity firm Nautic Partners. 
• A few months later, Vallen joined contractor and industrial supplies buying group AD. 
• Later that year, Vallen partnered with manufacturing data automation software provider Datanomix so that the company could get insights in real-time. 
• This past October, the Industrial Supply Association named Vallen its 2023 Innovation Impact Award winner on behalf of the company’s employee resource program. Vallen was recognized for that honor at the ISA24 convention in mid-April. 
• Vallen joined the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors earlier this year
• And on April 29, Vallen announced the opening of a 175,000-square-foot advanced distribution center in Edmonton, Canada.

MDM Podcast: Voices of ISA24 (April 24)

That all paints the picture of a very proactive strategy which Delph said has positioned Vallen to be the company it wants to be, and for sustained success.

“I had a mentor at one point who said, ‘The secret to success in distribution is to consistently do the right thing over time, and you’ll deliver on value creation for all of your partners.’ So yeah, we’re extremely aggressive,” Delph told me. “I think that’s because our team really feels like they’re creating something different in the market, and something that’s exciting for our customers and suppliers.

“Clearly, our team is on quite a streak of successes they’ve created.”

On MDM’s 2023 Top Distributors Lists, Vallen charted at No. 18 for industrial distributors and No. 9 for MRO supplies distributors. It figures to improve on both of those lists when our 2024 version is released in June.

Our discussion discussed details of the WIS acquisition — which added about $784 million in annual revenues — and each of those other aforementioned ‘wins’.

Listen to the full podcast via the audio player above, and you can find all of our MDM Podcasts here.