Q. Hello, Rob. Great to have this time to talk more about the success achieved in the U.S. in 2025. Your earnings report stated the sales in the U.S. ended at $16.5B up 15% from last year. Can you share more about what drove the performance?
A. Great to speak with you again, Scott. Yes, 2025 was a record year for Sonepar in the U.S. and validates the strategy we’ve been executing over the past several years.
So many milestones were achieved in 2025; bringing five brands together under the Echo name, growing online sales through our Digital Job Center to $2+ billion, increasing our presence in the data center market and formalizing a centralized data center team, building multiple automated CDC’s in Vegas, Denver, and Phoenix, and reaching historically high EBIT levels – just to name a few.
We operate with discipline – driving operational excellence and making targeted growth investments. The Sonepar associates have embraced our direction and continue to deliver exceptional results while providing best-in-class service.
Q. What are some of the investments Sonepar made to support your growth?
A. Creating a world-class supply chain is key to our strategic plan, and we are making significant investments across the entire US footprint. Dana Mouritzen, Chief Operating Officer, has a saying he often repeats, “10 out of 10, On Time, Every Time.” Achieving 10 out of 10 means accurate first‑shipments, effortless service, and executing on precise performance standards. This will ultimately free up teams so most of the time is spent creating value for customers versus “heroic saves.” We are supporting that vision with investments in areas like advanced forecasting and AI‑driven insights, while continuing to engage and collaborate with our suppliers.
Further, our nationwide build‑out of automated central distribution centers (CDCs) is doubling SKU availability, increasing speed, and transforming the customer experience. Since 2022 the Sonepar U.S. network has added two million square feet of space, with plans for greater expansion over the next four years that will add millions of square feet. In 2025, Sonepar USA launched its first AutoStore automation system in our newly opened Las Vegas CDC, accelerating delivery, improving associate experience, and driving growth. Within three years, 95% of all shipments will originate from automated CDCs that have the industry’s broadest SKU assortment.
Another recent achievement is Sonepar obtained Level 2 Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification. We have been on a five-year journey to meet this extremely rigorous standard, and it’s truly a standout capability among distributors. Level 2 CMMC certification allows us to offer customers a secure, compliant platform to manage federally regulated government projects, including defense-related manufacturing and construction, and critical infrastructure like transportation and utilities. For customers working in any sensitive segment, like data centers or oil and gas, Sonepar’s CMMC certification provides the necessary, and often required, data protection.
Q. You have had quite a few acquisitions in the past few years. Have those acquisitions contributed to your success in ways you anticipated?
A. Definitely. We acquire companies that have the culture and local talent to grow and succeed. While keeping their local go-to-market strategy, we invest, share innovative services and solutions offerings and leverage the size and scale of Sonepar. Our strategy works, and we have seen acquired companies grow and thrive as part of the Sonepar family.
New companies tap into Sonepar resources and accelerate their growth potential: Summit is a good example and has grown significantly since joining Sonepar in 2024. The business has grown 30% and is quickly approaching the $1.5 billion milestone. Echo is another great example across our Midwest territory. By combining six separate operations and over 60 locations under a single Echo-branded platform, customers across the entire Midwest can now benefit from the capabilities and solutions of each of the operations, including panel board assembly, best-in-class fastener offerings, and power substation packaging and sourcing capabilities.
Q. Let’s talk about Data Centers. While the sector is booming, others, like commercial, residential, and industrial, are lagging compared to the last few years. Are you looking at the data center market as a long-term play? Are you building a strategy going forward on data center expansion?
A. Data centers are a long-term strategic priority for us. We all see AI adoption, the growing reliance on cloud services for data storage and computing, and broader digitization driving a sustained increase in data center capacity needs. Even after facilities come online, the critical infrastructure will require ongoing maintenance and upgrades.
Our approach is to offer end-to-end support for data center construction, helping customers reduce supply chain risk and stay on schedule through readily available inventory and specialized services. That includes staging and storage (Pro Logistic Services), engineered logistics and delivery, labor-saving solutions, and vendor-managed inventory (VMI) so crews can execute with speed and certainty.
What differentiates Sonepar is our global presence, including our dense network of 570 branches in the U.S., and the local agility and expertise of our operating companies. With $38 billion in sales worldwide, we can benefit from strong manufacturer partnerships in the data center space. When it comes to execution, our family of companies in the U.S. has the autonomy and flexibility to meet the needs of customers in their unique markets.
Q. An issue facing our industry is how to recruit and retain talent. What are you experiencing?
A. Obviously, we all see the need for talented workers across the entire electrification segment. Several of our operating companies offer scholarships for students entering the trades, such as NorthEast Electrical’s community scholarships and tool grants. Cooper Electric recently hosted more than 100 students to their Learning Lab to introduce them to careers in the industry. We appreciate everything the trade associations do to advocate for and promote the electrical industry, and we’re trying to do our part as well.
At Sonepar, we attract talent by emphasizing the limitless opportunities that exist because of the continued electrification of the world, and we retain associates by investing in education and career growth. We now have more associates who are Lighting Certified through NCQLP than any other distributor, and our Lighting Academy has trained hundreds of our associates in lighting design and controls.
In 2025, Sonepar US graduated 700 emerging leaders through in-house training programs tailored to their job and designed to strengthen critical skills for current and future roles. To reinforce our Purpose, Sonepar Group instituted a stock sharing program where all eligible associates became shareholders. Investing in and developing associates will always remain a top priority for leadership.
Q: Great segue to AI. What’s your plan for AI? Any success stories you can share? How are you focusing on your AI investments to create future success?
A: Sonepar, through its global Spark platform, has built some of the best digital tools in the industry and is very focused on where and how to apply AI across our business. We maintain an AI mindset, which makes each of us more productive in doing our daily work, while also we also develop and implement specifically tailored AI tools that create operational efficiencies for customers. We know AI will impact everything we do, so we are making Microsoft’s AI tool, Copilot, available to associates. We provide training but also provide associates using the tool for freedom to innovate, explore, and share insights and successes.
On an enterprise level, AI will be most effective if it has high-quality data to pull from. For years Sonepar has been investing in our global Spark data platform; and we already have the necessary foundation to ensure reliable AI applications. That puts us ahead of organizations that are just starting to invest. We are developing custom AI solutions that leverage our extensive data to give us deep insights into the business. We are also building targeted solutions that make processes more efficient, freeing up associates’ time for higher value work. For example, we recently launched Sales Order Automation (SOA) to streamline and automate the entire sales order entry process. SOA can recognize any contractor submittal (including in’s handwriting) and process a 700-line-item order in seconds. It is enabling our sales associates to accurately process quotes and orders much faster.
Enhancements to our mobile app and our online project management platform, the Digital Job Center, provide customers with real-time information on product availability, order tracking and project management. Our digital team designs solutions in close collaboration with customers, so they can best accommodate the contractors’ needs and schedule.
Q. Along the lines of managing the unpredictable – interest rates, tariffs, oil prices, war, AI…how are you dealing with the outside forces to keep your story successful?
We have been intentional in building an organization that is resilient and very agile in its approach. We have regional brands that are reactive to local market conditions while also uniting under a common Sonepar approach.
Being family-owned means that we can weather short-term disruptions and keep a long-term view. We are not chasing quick wins quarter-by-quarter. We are making significant investments in our Spark omnichannel platform and warehouse automation so we can continue to offer best-in-class services to our customers in the future.
Q. So, Irby is celebrating 100 years?
Irby has grown dramatically over the decades to become the preeminent utility supplier and solutions provider in the country, now with 1,000 associates and operations in all 50 states. Irby has grown over 10% a year for nine consecutive years! As the company continues growing, it retains customer loyalty, which has been key to its longevity. In fact, we have a customer that has been doing business with Irby throughout its entire 100-year history! We’ll be celebrating the 100th milestone in Jackson this June.
Tagged with Sonepar, Sonepar USA