Grainger acquires Alliance Energy Solutions

MRO distributor makes its first service-based acquisition, focused on energy-efficient lighting retrofits


Victoria Fraza Kickham -- Industrial Distribution, 11/18/2009 1:10:52 PM

Broad-line MRO distributor W.W. Grainger said it signed and closed an all-cash acquisition of Alliance Energy Solutions, a service company that provides turn-key energy-efficient lighting retrofits.
Grainger said it expects the transaction to be accretive to earnings in 2010 by approximately one cent to two cents per share. Other terms of the deal were not disclosed.


"This transaction is the first service-based acquisition we're adding to our U.S. customer offering and we anticipate it will help us accelerate our strategy to become our customers' indispensable partner in helping them keep their facilities safe, efficient and functional," Grainger's chairman, president and CEO Jim Ryan said in a statement announcing the deal.

"Our customers told us they had a need for a service to complement our deep product line around lighting products and we listened," said Mike Pulick, president of Grainger's U.S. business. "The Alliance Energy Solutions team is dedicated to helping customers through offering value-added services that help them drive energy efficiency and productivity, with particular expertise in the area of lighting retrofits. We are delighted to have them join the U.S. team."
Alliance Energy Solutions is based in Oxford, Conn., and had sales of $20 million in 2008.