Essco Strengthens Its Footprint In Arizona With The Acquisition Of Mountain Vista Supply

CHANDLER , Ariz., July 8, 2008- Essco Wholesale Electric, a subsidiary of Sonepar USA, is pleased to announce the asset acquisition of Mountain Vista Supply, Sierra Vista, Ariz.

Mountain Vista Supply, a leading independent electrical distributor in Sierra Vista, Arizona is a full-line commercial and residential contractor supply house.

Founded in 1991 by Ron and Joanne Wagner, the business was started after purchasing the business from Essco Sierra Vista. Since then, Ron and Joanne developed a reliable and customer service oriented operation, now recognized as a leading electrical distributor in the Cochise County, Arizona market.

"It’s kind of ironic that we bought the Essco business back in 1991 to form Mountain Vista Supply and now Essco is buying it back from us. Being an established business and with Essco’s new presence in Tucson, the Essco team made sense for us and our employees,” says Ron Wagner. “Essco offers all of us the opportunity to retain our local personality and customer focus with the economics of scale and brand name provided by a leading industry player. Joanne and I are pleased that our customers and employees will benefit from this move.”

Scott Tonn, President of Essco adds, “We are pleased to welcome the Mountain Vista Supply team to our family of businesses. Mountain Vista not only has a great reputation for customer satisfaction, but also provides us a much needed solution to a region of Arizona we were not able to adequately service from our existing locations.”

"We are equally delighted that Ron Wagner will stay with our team and look forward to assisting his team in growing the business and bringing his customers new services and solutions in the coming months and years,” added Scott Tonn.

About Essco
Essco Wholesale Electric operates 15 locations in Arizona and California. As a full-line commercial and residential electrical contractor supply house, Essco’s goals and business focus have remained unchanged since inception - to provide each and every customer excellent customer service, competitive pricing, and significant local product stock availability.

Sonepar USA
Sonepar USA is made up of the finest electrical supply distributors in the United States. The company has over 4,600 associates in 12 companies operating more than 254 branches in 35 states. In 2007, Sonepar USA achieved $2.9 billion in revenue. It is a member of the Sonepar group - the world's largest privately held electrical distributor. Worldwide, Sonepar employs over 25,250 employees, with 1,450 branch locations and 2007 annual s ales of $15.3 billion.