CLAY — American Granby Inc. has a new pipeline into Canada. It’s a line laid on March 20, when American Granby owner John Lowe acquired a group of five Canadian companies based in Burnaby, British Columbia, near Vancouver. The Canadian firms will give American Granby, a Clay–based distributor, access to an enlarged distribution network north […]
CLAY — American Granby Inc. has a new pipeline into Canada.
It’s a line laid on March 20, when American Granby owner John Lowe acquired a group of five Canadian companies based in Burnaby, British Columbia, near Vancouver. The Canadian firms will give American Granby, a Clay–based distributor, access to an enlarged distribution network north of the border.
Lowe will run the newly acquired firms separately from American Granby, as its sister companies. But the businesses have similarities, according to Gary Palley, American Granby’s vice president of sales and marketing.
“The product portfolios are close,” he says. “We do differ because our direction and the markets we serve are different.”
American Granby distributes pump, well, pool, spa, irrigation, plumbing, and heating components. The Canadian companies manufacture and distribute products for use in plumbing systems as well as heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems.
Their main member is CB Supplies Ltd., which handles distribution in Canada. Other members are Seymour Industries Ltd., the group’s U.S. distribution arm, Vanguard Pipe and Fittings Ltd., a plastic piping manufacturer, Canfit Industries Ltd., which makes plastic fittings, and Canip Industries Ltd., a producer of metal nipples — pipes with threading on both ends.
Palley declined to disclose the financial terms of the companies’ acquisition. The acquired firms’ former owners decided to sell primarily because they were growing older, he says.
American Granby will use CB Supplies’ distribution network in Canada to expand its sales in that country, according to Palley. In addition to its headquarters in British Columbia, CB Supplies has warehouse space in Calgary, Alberta, in Montreal, and in Mississauga, Ontario, near Toronto, he says.
American Granby’s only current Canadian distribution location is a small warehouse operation in Toronto, Palley says. That warehouse, which has about five employees, will merge with the Mississauga warehouse, he says.
“What it basically allows for is movement from one distribution center to four,” Palley says. “We’ll make American Granby products available through the entire CB Supplies network.”
Plans for distributing the Canadian companies’ products in the United States are not as firm. Their U.S. distribution arm, Seymour Industries, does not have a physical presence in the country, Palley says. Instead, it coordinates distribution through sales and stocking representatives and ships directly to wholesalers, he says.
Seymour Industries could be merged into American Granby, according to Palley. But no discussions about a merger have taken place yet, he says.
“It’s all in the works right now in terms of making those decisions,” he says. “Within the next six to 12 months, a lot of these decisions will be made.”
Local plans
Palley doesn’t anticipate American Granby moving from its current headquarters at 7652 Morgan Road in Clay. That building, which the company owns, is about 100,000 square feet.
He also does not believe there will be any changes in American Granby’s staffing levels. The company employs 45 workers at its headquarters and has seven people on the road in sales.
“I doubt seriously you’ll see any head-count change in the United States,” Palley says. “We can handle more with the existing personnel that we have. We’ve made a commitment to the [Clay] location.”
Palley declined to disclose revenue totals for American Granby. He projects revenue growth between 5 percent and 7 percent in 2012, up from growth between 3 percent and 4 percent in 2011.
However, the 2012 growth projections do not take into account distribution opportunities coming from American Granby’s new sister companies. The firm does not yet have projections that include the potential for increased Canadian distribution, Palley says.
About 80 percent of American Granby’s sales are in the United States, he says. The remaining 20 percent are in Canada.
CB Supplies has a similar sales ratio — except most of its sales are in Canada, according to Warren Lowe, the firm’s vice president of corporate development. About 80 percent of CB Supplies’ sales are in Canada, and 20 percent are in the United States, says Warren Lowe, who is also John Lowe’s son.
The five recently acquired Canadian companies employ a total of about 100 people, Warren Lowe says. He declined to share revenue totals or growth projections for the firms.
But he did say that he expects CB Supplies’ U.S. sales to grow while American Granby’s Canadian sales expand.
“We think they will be able to sell to each other’s customers and distribute each other’s products,” Warren Lowe says. “Between American Granby and CB Supplies, we have some of the same customers. We’re just excited about the opportunity to be able to grow on both sides of the border.”
John Lowe also owns Monarch-McLaren, Ltd., based in Elkhorn, Wis. That firm manufactures industrial leather
seals.