Lonestar Electric Supply’s motto is: We Make It Happen. Note that company leadership chose to add a period and not an exclamation point after the statement.
Why?
“Our tagline isn’t a big rah-rah speech,” said CEO Jeff Metzler. “It’s a matter of fact. Period. We make it happen for our customers, vendors and employees. We make ours an environment they want to thrive in—that has permeated throughout our business.”
Not many independent electrical distributors start from scratch in America these days, but that’s just what the Lonestar Electric Supply leadership team did seven years ago. Since then, the company has quickly risen to No. 27 on the Electrical Wholesaling Top 150 Electrical Distributors list thanks to its customers, vendor partners and the unrivaled service of its team.
Lonestar Electric Supply, which has seven locations and 400 employees, accomplished more than $405 million in sales in 2021 and is on pace to hit $550 million in 2022.
The company recently embarked on two major developments: officially launching an industrial division and adding a switchgear and controls line.
“ABB gave us the franchise for the state of Texas this past month,” Metzler said of the new switchgear and controls line. “It’s a huge initiative for us and we’re excited to be partnering with ABB in Texas.”
Success for Lonestar Electric Supply is the result of the company’s exceptional employees’ laser-like focus on what the customer needs. While being a service-oriented, independently owned and locally operated electrical distributor, Lonestar employees use their extensive product knowledge, vendor relationships and logistical excellence to provide clients with superior customer service. Lonestar also attributes the company’s fast-paced trajectory to establishing itself as a leading electrical distributor in Texas to employing experts in energy code compliant solutions, advanced lighting systems, lighting controls, logistics solutions and associated equipment and services.
Lonestar Electric Supply currently has a client mix that’s 95% contractor and 5% industrial, with the latter percentage subject to increase with its new industrial division.
“Texas as a whole is a big industrial market in the United States and we’re focused on increasing our market share,” Metzler said. “We want to grow our business in an area we didn’t invest in from the beginning.”
The Lonestar leadership team says what differentiates them from the competition is that the company focuses on creating solutions that customers want. They believe prioritizing solutions that help contractors save time, labor and money is where they fill a gap in the marketplace. They have lighting application engineers on staff to create custom lighting and controls designs for contractors who may not have the staff to do it themselves and they can turn it around in 48 hours.
Providing value to customers through differentiated services plus employee development and wellbeing are the cornerstones of the business. Practicing servant leadership, rather than an autocratic style of leadership that pushes directives from the top down, allows Lonestar to truly put its customers and people first.
A member of IMARK Electrical for the past six months, the business has already experienced many membership benefits.
“It’s been very good for us to say the least; beyond the obvious vendor programs, which IMARK is clearly able to negotiate better than an independent in Texas,” Metzler said. “Now we have access to vendors we weren’t able to get to before. This has been a difference maker in our business. The other benefits are the network and collaborating with other independents around the country, which is something we really never had before. To open those lines of communication to other independents around the country is really exciting to us, and in this age of consolidation, to be a part of something bigger than what we were on our own, gives us comfort and security for the long haul.”
For more information, visit lonestarelectricsupply.com.
Jennifer Kohlhepp
Jennifer Kohlhepp is the managing editor of IMARK Electrical Now and has more than 20 years of experience developing award-winning content for various platforms. Reach her at jkohlhepp@cmasolutions.com.