The Home Depot Pro, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, is a wholesale distributor and direct marketer of maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products for non-industrial businesses in the United States. The Home Depot Pro distributes products such as HVAC, janitorial supplies, plumbing supplies, and security supplies.
The Home Depot Pro was established in 1978 formerly known as Wilmar Industries, founded by William S. Green. In 2000, Wilmar acquired Barnett together forming the company Interline Brands. Gradually, Interline Brands diversified their customer base through the acquisitions of Sexauer, Trayco, Barnett, U.S. Lock, Leran Gas Products, Maintenance USA, Hardware Express, and janitorial supply distributors AmSan, Clean Source and Jan Pak. In 2015, Interline Brands merged five of its janitorial brands into one unified brand called Supply Works.Funk, Dale: "Interline Brands Files for IPO" Electrical Wholesaling, July 1, 2004"Interline Brands, Inc." Hoovers Business Intelligence, Company overview On July 22, 2015, The Home Depot acquired Interline Brands for $1.6 billion. Interline Brands was rebranded in 2018 as The Home Depot Pro. The former brand names of Interline Brands were renamed to The Home Depot Pro Multifamily, The Home Depot Pro Speciality Trades, and The Home Depot Pro Institutional.
History
Wilmar Industries
The origin of Interline Brands first began with Wilmar Supply Company in 1978. Wilmar was a hardware store in Collingswood, New Jersey founded by William (Bill) Green and his father Martin Green. To expand its business beyond retail it began selling MRO products to area apartment complexes and then expanded geographically by distributing to multi-family housing businesses. Wilmar went public in 1996 and purchased 14 regional competing businesses before acquiring the Sexauer Group, an established distributor of plumbing products to institutions, in 1999. A leveraged buyout in May 2000 took the company private in preparation for the next stage of growth. Wilmar acquired Barnett, Inc. because the two businesses were very similar, but each targeted a different customer base. Wilmar's customers were people who did facility maintenance work, while Barnett sold to locksmiths, retail hardware, and contractors.
Wilmar Industries acquired Barnett in September 2000 and renamed the umbrella company Interline Brands in June 2001.Olsztynski, Jim: "Interline Brands’ Unique Vision" Supply House Times, May 4, 2004 Their guiding principle was to "change as little as possible about the way our customers currently do business with us"."History" Interline Brands, About Us
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. In late 2004 Interline went public as NYSE: IBI but was later delisted in September 2012 to become privatized."Interline Brands, Inc." Interline Brands, Inc. Stockholders Approve Adoption of Merger Agreement, August 28, 2012
Acquisitions and rebranding 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 along with AmSan's own line of products called Renown. Renown has base products such as toilet paper, paper towels, brooms, and cleaning agents. In the 1990s AmSan became a conglomerate by buying 44 independent janitor and sanitary distributors. Some of AmSan's acquisitions are AmSan Eve, AmSan Vonachen-Elton, AmSan Nogg Chemical & Paper, and AmSan West. In 2002 Michael Mulhern became CEO of AmSan. Mulhern moved the headquarters of AmSan from Raleigh, North Carolina to Chicago, Illinois. Under Mulhern AmSan underwent a series of reforms dedicated to increasing profitability. AmSan turned over 40% of its top 35 executives, downsized its office operations, and downsized under-performing distribution centers. By 2005 AmSan had revenues totaling $300 million. American Capital invested $25 million in the recapitalization of AmSan in 2005. AmSan West, which has operations in Sacramento and Los Angeles, was not acquired by Interline Brands. In 2008 AmSan established a sales and distribution territory in Columbus, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Atlanta and Nashville. In 2009 a showroom and walk-in store was established in Fort Myers, Florida.
Cleansource, a regional distributor of JanSan products, was acquired in October 2010 for $60.1 million. CleanSource was founded in 1956 in San Jose, California. It distributes janitorial, food service supplies, and MRO products. Customers of CleanSource consist of healthcare, education, and institutional facilities. In 2010 CleanSource generated around $115 million in sales.
A regional supplier of cleaning and packaging solutions called JanPak was acquired in 2012 for $82 million. JanPak was founded in 1945 in Bluefield, West Virginia by James Shott, H. I. Shott, Jr., James Tilson, L. M. Kerley Sr. and B. L. Early. It was first called Paper Supply Company until 2000 when the name changed to JanPak Inc. Mike Shott, James Shott's grandson, was serving as company chair of the board directors at the time of the name change to JanPak. The name changed to JanPak to unite its sister branches such as Charlotte Paper Company or Greenville Paper Company who each were known by a different name.
On March 16, 2015, Interline merged AmSan, CleanSource, JanPak, Trayco, and Sexauer into a new national brand called SupplyWorks. AF Lighting was also sold to Almo Corporation in March 2015 because lighting was a minimal part of the business of Interline Brands.
Purchase by The Home Depot and rebranding The Home Depot acquired Interline Brands in July 2015 for $1.6 billion from P2 Capital Partners, Goldman Sachs' private equity arm, and the management of Interline Brands. The acquisition of Interline Brands allows The Home Depot access to expand its business to the multi-family sector, hospitality, and industrial area. Craig Menear, CEO of The Home Depot, says that the purchase gives The Home Depot more opportunity to expand in the maintenance, repair, and operations sector that was previously not successful. In January 2016 Michael Grebe retired leaving Kenneth Sweder as the new CEO. In 2017 Interline Brands was renamed to The Home Depot Pro including its brand names except for U.S. Lock. Wilmar Industries was renamed to The Home Depot Pro Multifamily. Barnett was renamed to The Home Depot Pro Specialty Trades. SupplyWorks was renamed to The Home Depot Pro Institutional.
Operations
The company staffs 30 showrooms throughout North America with 70 strategically placed distribution centers stocking over 30,000 products under the brands Wilmar, Barnett, SupplyWorks, Hardware Express, Maintenance USA, U.S. Lock, and Copperfield. Its customer base includes: Facilities maintenance businesses servicing multi-family housing facilities, educational institutions, lodging and healthcare facilities, government properties and building service contractors Professional contractors who repair, remodel and build residential and non-industrial facilities Specialty distributors, including plumbing and hardware retailers. 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."Interline Brands Inc. (IBI)" Yahoo Finance Most Interline Distribution Centers include a customer center for over-the-counter sales which Barnett customers prefer. In markets with a large 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. Next day delivery is shipped using Interline Brands delivery trucks. Third party carriers such as UPS and Saia are also used for customers outside of the next day service area. There are also will call or pick up locations at most Interline Brands locations.
Interline Brands contains eight brand names to serve contractors, specialty distributors, housing maintenance and janitorial needs. The products from these brands are stored in distribution centers and contractor showrooms in the United States and Canada.
Internationally
Canada In Ontario, Interline Brands has a distribution center in Mississauga under the Barnett and Sexauer brand. Sexauer, a brand of Interline Brands, had a distribution center in Edmonton and Toronto.
The Home Depot Pro Multifamily
The Home Depot Pro Multifamily first began as Wilmar Supply Company in 1978 by William Green and Martin Green in Collingswood, New Jersey as a hardware store. Wilmar expanded its retail business by selling MRO products to apartment complexes and multi-family housing. In 1986 William Green became CEO of Wilmar and in 1993 William bought out Martin's interests in Wilmar. The annual revenues of Wilmar escalated from $24.52 million in 1993 to $100.64 million in 1997. In the same year The Pier-Angeli Group, Lindley Plumbing, and Supply Company and Management Supply Company were acquired by Wilmar as part of its strategy of expanding to new markets through the fragmented industry. On January 24, 1996 Wilmar went public and raise over $47 million. Wilmar expanded into the institutional and lodging facilities by acquiring Sexauer and Trayco in December 1999 for $85 million. Wilmar also acquired Ace Maintenance Mart USA, Inc. in 1999.
On January 24, 1996 Wilmar went public as (NASDAQ:WLMR) and raised over $47 million. Wilmar expanded into the institutional and lodging facilities by acquiring Sexauer and Trayco in December 1999 for $85 million. Wilmar went private in May 2000 by investment groups that include Parthenon Capital, The Chase Manhattan Bank (now known as JPMorgan Chase Bank) as trustee for First Plaza Group Trust (a GM Pension Fund), Sterling Investment Partners, BancBoston Capital and Svoboda Capital, LLC. William Green still retained the position of CEO William Green. In 2000 Wilmar, based in Moorestown, New Jersey, purchased Barnett, Inc. for $214 million. Wilmar and its acquisitions became an umbrella company under the name Interline Brands in 2001. Michael J. Grebe became CEO of Wilmar in January 2002 and continued to be CEO until January 1, 2016. After Wilmar acquired Barnett the two companies began a program of integrating operations into streamlining the distribution operations. The logo of Interline Brands is colored after Wilmar with red, black and white.
Maintenance USA Maintenance USA is a low price supplier of maintenance, repair and operations products. It was founded in 1974 as Ace Maintenance Mart USA in San Diego, California and acquired by Wilmar in 1999.
Sexauer