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Electrical Wholesaling’s 2026 Top 100 Ranking

William Attardi on June 4, 2026

This year’s listing of the largest electrical distributors in North America is sponsored by LEDVANCE. Electrical Wholesaling’s2026 Top 100 electrical distributors remain quite bullish on their 2026 sales prospects despite economic uncertainty in the overall economy because of the war in Iran, the related spike in inflation, a still-slumbering residential market and sluggish new office construction in many metros. Despite these concerns, the average 2025 revenue increase for the 70-plus distributors who provided sales data was +9.3%. Data centers were by far the most common large construction projects mentioned by Top 100 execs. Leon Mowadia, COO, Facility Solutions Group (FSG) , Austin, TX, said FSG has also worked on several large Manhattan office buildings, as well as Netflix’s studio being built in Fort Monmouth, NJ, and other large commercial projects in Denver, Chicago and Los Angeles.  Electrical Wholesaling’s 2026 Top 100 Ranking | Electrical Wholesaling

2026 Lighting Resource Guide by Jim Lucy

William Attardi on March 30, 2026

Electrical Wholesaling’s 2026 picks for where to go when you need to learn more about lighting, from A-Z. With all of the technological changes in lighting over the past few years, getting the latest available information on products and trends is critical. The associations, government resources, publications, websites and universities listed below are EW’s updatedpicks for the best lighting education, information on trends and new products, and networking / educational opportunities at lighting industry events. The 2026 Lighting Resource Guide also offers some insight into one the fastest-growing new resources in the lighting market — NEMRA’s new Lighting Division. In just over a year it has already attracted more than 150 lighting reps and manufacturers. Congratulations to the National Electrical Manufacturers Representatives Association (NEMRA) for the foresight to develop this important resource. 2026 Lighting Resource Guide | Electrical Wholesaling

Electrical Wholesaling’s 2025 Top 100 Electrical Distributors by Jim Lucy

William Attardi on June 9, 2025

Top 100 distributors are divided over the direction of the 2025 economy, but they are still making major capital investments in their companies to position them for growth. It’s tough to pinpoint exactly why Top 100 distributors are all over the map with their economic expectations, especially when outside of the uncertainty over tariffs and concern over the size of the national debt, the overall U.S. economy is still growing at a steady if unspectacular rate.  Unemployment is currently not growing at a dangerous rate, inflation has not hit the danger zone, and while the expected real GDP growth rate of less than 2% for Q2 2025 will elicit plenty of yawns, it’s still expected to land on the positive side of the ledger for this quarter. The Top 10:

  1. Wesco International
  2. Sonepar USA Holdings Inc.
  3. Graybar Electric Co.
  4. Rexel Holdings (Rexel USA)
  5. CED
  6. Border States Electric
  7. City Electric Supply Co.
  8. Elliott Electric Supply Inc.
  9. McNaughton-McKay Electric Co.
  10. S. Electrical Services

Electrical Wholesaling’s 2025 Top 100 Electrical Distributors | Electrical Wholesaling

Electrical Wholesaling: Bill Attardi Launches LearnersLive.com as Lighting Industry Training Resource

William Attardi on January 27, 2025

Bill Attardi Launches LearnersLive.com as Lighting Industry Training Resource | Electrical Wholesaling

LearnersLive.com will draw from Attardi’s 60 years of lighting industry experience, Q&As with lighting experts and other lighting market training resources. Spend a few minutes with Bill Attardi and you will learn a few things about him real fast. He’s a 60-year veteran of the lighting market who quite possibly loves learning about the lighting business more today than when he started in the business as a sales rep for Westinghouse Lamp/Philips (now part of Signify) selling lamps in the Big Apple in 1965. You can also sense his passion for learning and teaching in the services he provides lighting and electrical professionals through Attardi Marketing, and through the Energy Watch News blog.

When you talk with Bill, you will also quickly find out he is a lifetime learner who not only  enjoys learning something new every day about the latest in lighting, but also loves teaching others about lighting, sales, marketing, management and life. This passion for teaching fuels the works he does as an adjunct professor teaching strategic marketing and management courses at Monmouth University since 2000.  His background as a lifetime learner and teacher inspired a new venture: www.learnerslive.com.  In describing the launch of LearnersLive.com, Attardi says it will be a learning experience where lighting professionals will have the opportunity to learn something every day, through virtual courses that will include marketing and management sessions developed through the courses he teaches at Monmouth University; interviews with lighting experts including Jim Benya, Deb Burnett, Mark Rea, Chris Brown and Bernie Erickson; and other lighting industry training websites and videos.

“Learning Showcase on LearnersLive.com is committed to the learning process,” he says in a LearnersLive.com post. “An activity that goes on and on and on, as it should. Every month, my passion as an educator is to contribute to that process with what I have learned over my lifetime.”  Effective Presentation Skills  is  currently posted at LearnersLive.com in three 30-minute virtual sessions, and in February Attardi will post his “Selling in the Executive Suite” video. He says the video will teach the special skills required to sell a major project to the executives that run a customer’s business.  “I have a passion for teaching and learning and have been doing it most of my life and for the past 20-plus years at Monmouth University,” Attardi says. “I want to continue doing it as long as God allows.”

Remembering the Solemn Purpose of Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States observed on the last Monday in May to honor and mourn U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the armed forces. The holiday traces its roots to the years immediately following the American Civil War (1861–1865), which caused massive casualties—roughly 620,000 soldiers dead, about 2% of the U.S. population at the time. Communities across the North and South began spontaneously decorating the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers, wreaths, and flags, a practice that gave rise to the original name: Decoration Day. On May 5, 1868, Major General John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)—a powerful Union veterans’ organization—issued General Order No. 11. This proclaimed May 30, 1868, as a nationwide “Decoration Day” to honor those who died in the Civil War. After World War I, the holiday expanded to honor all American service members who died in any war, not just the Civil War.  In 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act to create more three-day weekends for federal employees. This moved Memorial Day to the last Monday in May, effective in 1971, when it was also officially named “Memorial Day.” As one 1868 quote put it: “That Nation which respects and honors its dead, shall ever be respected and honored itself.”