Baird’s exclusive research for tED magazine shows revenue growth continued for NAED distributors in the fourth quarter of 2025.
The research, conducted in early January of 2026, shows revenue grew in October, November, and December for both Electrical and Datacomm, with a slight slowing in November followed by a strong rebound in December.
Overall, Electrical saw a 4.7% increase in revenue versus the fourth quarter of 2024, while Datacomm’s revenue was up 10.7%, with a strong 12.9% increase in December. Baird reports that Electrical is above average across all distribution product lines by 2.5%, while Datacomm is the strongest product line for the third consecutive quarter.
However, the results are slightly below expectations. NAED distributors expected revenue in Electrical to increase by 5.8% in the quarter. Datacomm far exceeded expectations, coming in with a 10.7% increase, far above the 6.6% that was forecasted.
Respondents provided the following comments on the fourth quarter results and their outlook for the first quarter of 2026.
“Market visibility is cloudy, lots of uncertainty around the economy, interest rates, etc., are impacting larger jobs.”
“Things stayed steady or slowed as the year ended. Uncertainty about the future held back any significant new investment.”
“Customers held onto POs as long as they could, and then everything busted loose in December.”
“Overall growth with orders in hand – delay experienced in the first two months due to part shortages and time to produce.”
“Poor October/November POS resulted in significant pullback in November purchases. Somewhat recovered in December, but January looks lighter.”
“We entered the fourth quarter with a large backlog… unfortunately, most of it was pushed into the 1st quarter of 2026.”
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