Bob Settle, vice president of marketing, Crescent Electric Supply
Crescent Electric Supply has over $1 billion in annual sales, more than 1,800 employees and operates 140 locations in 27 states. Despite its size, the company prides itself on its “small town, Midwestern values.”
“Our customers continue to work with us year after year and decade after decade because we are focused on their success,” said Bob Settle, Crescent’s vice president of marketing. “They know that they can rely on us to be there when they need us. Many of our customers and suppliers have been with us from the very early days– including a relationship with GE that started in 1925. One of Crescent’s founding principles was to serve customers through locally-stocked facilities so we don’t use a hub-and-spoke distribution model. Our branch and district managers determine their inventory mix based on local market conditions and customer needs.” Settle said. “We don’t want to give our customers any surprises. If they’re expecting something, they can rely on us to provide what they want– when they want it.”
Crescent serves contractors, commercial, institutional and industrial customers with a broad line of electrical, lighting, industrial, automation and datacomm products. The company serves customers from New York to Alaska and much of its growth has been organic– but it also actively pursues acquisition opportunities that complement Crescent’s strategic objectives. The company has grown in recent years thanks in large part to its IMARK Group membership. In addition to IMARK Group’s purchasing power, membership has given Crescent exposure to potential acquisition targets, including companies that are now part of Crescent-Stoneway Electric (17 locations in Washington and Idaho), Interstate Electric Supply (five locations in Idaho) and Mesco Electrical Supply (three branches in Ohio).
“Stoneway and Interstate were such a great fit culturally and from a work ethic standpoint that they’re great companies to have associated with us,” Settle said. “Same with Mesco, although that sale is very recent. The companies they acquire retain their own brands because they have excellent brand recognition and are respected in their own markets.” The company is actively investigating additional acquisition opportunities.
“We’d certainly be interested in extending our core business footprint as well as expanding our industrial and datacomm reach, Settle said. “There are obviously some major markets in the South, Southeast and mid-Atlantic that we do not currently operate in that would be attractive, but we would also be interested in companies in other geographies that fit our business model and culture.”
Founded in 1919 by Titus B. Schmid in Dubuque, Iowa, Crescent Electric Supply is headquartered in East Dubuque, Illinois. The company continues to be wholly owned by the Schmid family and is managed by a professional executive team, including Marty Burbridge, president and CEO; James Etheredge, senior vice president and chief financial officer and Erich Lemke, senior vice president and chief information officer. In 2016, Crescent’s customer mix included electrical contractors (63 percent), industrial OEM & MRO (24 percent), commercial and institutional (4 percent) and various other customer groups (9 percent). In addition to its core construction business, Crescent’s key initiatives include energy retrofits and upgrades, industrial control and automation and a broad range of datacomm and security products.
To maintain its competitive position, Crescent has invested heavily in its e-commerce capabilities. And although the company has had e-commerce capability since the late 90s that allowed customers to manage inventory and review orders online, its 2016 acquisition of Home Products Etc. allowed the company to access a state-of-the-art technology platform. Crescent is now in the process of migrating its existing e-commerce capability to the new platform, Settle said. “The new e-commerce site will have the functionality of a high end B2C site, with the added benefit of allowing customers to manage their entire Crescent account online.”
Settle said customer expectations have changed over the years and Crescent has stepped up to meet those expectations. For example, customers have access to a variety of services including project staging, kitting, prefab solutions, Just-in-time (JIT) delivery application engineering support and a variety of inventory management solutions. “Customers are looking for a partner to help them reduce costs and grow their bottom line.” Settle said. During a project with the city of Las Vegas, Crescent replaced more than 42,000 streetlights with LED fixtures. When the lights arrived on site, they came in special packaging, so that the old streetlights could be inserted into the same packaging and returned to Crescent’s facility where they were recycled.
In addition to helping companies realize energy savings through LED lighting and controls upgrades, Crescent has a dedicated team of 15 energy specialists who offers deep energy audits that uncover additional savings opportunities by employing variable frequency drives, energy-efficient motors and power quality improvements.
There are business challenges, including continued weakness in industrial markets and consolidation in the supplier base, but Crescent thrives due in large part to its strong business relationships with the industry’s leading manufacturers.
Employee training and development is at the heart of Crescent’s long-term strategic plan, beginning with employee orientation and continuing with opportunities to enhance customer service, sales skills, management training, product training and more. Training is offered in-house, online and by vendors and suppliers, IMARK University, National Association of Electrical Distributors, the company’s national sales conference, among others.Crescent employees completed more than 40,000 hours of combined instruction in 2016.