Thus far 2009 has been an exceptionally quiet year for mergers and acquisitions, and no Top 200 distributors have yet been purchased. That's a notable contrast to 2008 when seven distributors on the Top 200 listing were purchased (see chart on page 20): Beacon Electric Supply, San Diego; Electric Fixture and Supply, Omaha, Neb.; Equity Utility Service Co. Inc., Marietta, Ga.; ESSCO Wholesale Electric, Chandler, Ariz.; Hagemeyer North America, Charleston, S.C.; Harris Electric Supply Co. Inc., Nashville, Tenn.; and Maurice Electrical Supply, Washington, D.C.

Estimated 2008 sales for the Top 200 distributors as a group slipped slightly from $54 billion in 2007 to $53.5 billion, and companies on this year's listing now control 59.3 percent of industry sales, down from the 60.7 percent posted in last year's Top 200 ranking. The ranked distributors had at least 78,881 employees and operated at least 5,587 locations. Sales-per-employee for the 120 full-line electrical distributors that provided both 2008 sales and employee counts was $644,684.

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