Two Midwestern workplace safety distributors have joined forces, with GME Supply acquiring Commercial Supply Co.

GME Supply, a Columbia, Missouri-based distributor of workplace safety gear and equipment, announced the deal, which will welcome its Des Moines, Iowa-based competitor into its portfolio. CSC is a distributor that primarily serves construction and industrial contractors. The deal extends GME’s reach across the Midwest and adds inventory and specialty products such as cable-wrapping equipment and industrial textiles. Commercial Supply’s two co-owners, Brad Lilienthal and Jason Curry, will join GME. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Why GME Supply is acquiring Commercial Supply Co.

GME’s top executive laid out its reasoning behind the CSC acquisition.

“Commercial Supply has earned a strong reputation by understanding what contractors need and delivering solutions that keep projects moving,” said Ryan Keogh, CEO of GME Supply.

Keogh touched upon the benefits expected from the acquisition.

“Their expertise, customer relationships, and entrepreneurial approach are a natural fit with GME Supply,” he stated. “Together, we can offer customers broader capabilities, greater access to inventory, and the resources to support projects across more markets.”

Lilienthal also praised the move.

“Joining GME Supply creates exciting opportunities for our customers and employees,” Lilienthal said. “With access to a broader range of products, additional resources and a national distribution network, we can build on what we’ve established and serve more customers across more markets.”

The marriage adds to a digital operation GME has worked to build. Its ecommerce sites, GME.com and FWLSP.com, run an ordering platform designed for large-scale customers, and Keogh described the company as “digital first” in a 2024 interview with Industrial Supply Magazine. GME also owns Gearcor, whose software lets companies run uniform, PPE, and fall protection ordering through a private online marketplace with a manager dashboard.

Business implications for the acquisition

Industry analysts said the move made sense.

Alex Stepansky, founder of Corridome, a database of U.S. private equity firms, M&A advisers and deals built from public records, noted that GME Supply is owned by Incline Equity Partners, a Pittsburgh-based private equity firm, “so Commercial Supply Co. is an add-on: a PE-owned distributor buying a smaller regional one,” Stepansky said.

He said buying a smaller rival distributor can make sense in this scenario.

“A regional distributor comes with branches, contractor accounts and supplier lines that would take years to build,” he stated. “Small distributors also tend to sell for a lower multiple of earnings than a larger platform does, so each add-on raises what the owner can sell the whole company for later.”

When Incline Equity Partners bought GME in 2023, the company said it planned to improve its online ordering platform.

For customers, the change usually shows up online first, Stepansky assessed.

“The smaller company’s buyers get moved onto the parent’s ordering site and catalog,” he added.

Why digital strengths are important

Mike Danford, owner and chief revenue officer at Adverio, an omni-marketplace operator that runs marketplace operations for ecommerce brands, said the digital piece is what GME brings to the table.

“GME runs its own purchasing platform, GME PRO, and a managed-gear program under the Gearcor name, where a contractor sets allowances and approved catalogs and the crew orders its own PPE from a phone,” Danford pointed out.

He added that Commercial Supply brings solar and wind contractors whose crews need exactly that. Thus, the value is moving those accounts onto GME’s system with the Des Moines team as the face.

“The risk is the migration,” he said. “Across the brands we manage, business buyers are already 8% to 9% of sales catalog-wide and about 20% in some categories.”

Danford said, noting that this can be the demand a distributor leaks when its checkout is slower than a marketplace, and the months after an acquisition are when a manager tries Amazon Business for the first time.

“Make the contractor relearn how to order and the marketplace siphons the new business,” Danford said.

He anticipates that the deal will work best if it is a seamless merger where the customer detects nothing new.

“Same rep, same credit terms, same truck,” he stated. “It fails when the first thing the customer notices is a new login, higher prices, and a product that didn’t survive the catalog cut. Contractors rarely switch distributors over a merger. They switch over the week an order didn’t show up.”

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