Two weeks after unveiling its “World’s Most Admired Companies” list — which MDM covered distributors’ representation on here — Forbes on Feb. 15 shared its 2023 lists for Best Midsized and Large Employers. Combined, the lists included a half dozen wholesale distributors. A few of them were on MDM’s 2022 Top Distributors lists.

To make the lists, Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista to make the lists. For the midsized list, they surveyed 45,000 American workers at companies and institutions with 1,000 to 5,000 U.S.-based employees. For the large list, they surveyed 45,000 American workers at companies and institutions with 5,000 or more U.S.-based employees. Each survey asked participants if they would recommend their current employers to friends and family (on a scale of 0 to 10) and to cite any other employer they would also recommend. Each list ranks 500 employers that received the most recommendations.

Forbes Best Midsized Employers list included the following distributors:

16. Digi-Key (No. 4 on MDM’s 2022 Top Electronics Distributors)
17. McMaster-Carr (No. 11 on MDM’s Top Industrial Distributors, No. 4 on Top MRO)
18. Allied Building Products (acquired by Beacon Building Supply in 2018 for $2.62 billion. Beacon is No. 5 on MDM’s 2022 Top Building Materials Distributors)
19. Benco Dental

Forbes Best Large Employers list included the following distributors:

217. US Foods
218. Wesco International (No. 1 on MDM’s Top Electrical Distributors, No. 18 on Industrial)

“Digi-Key is proud to be recognized by Forbes as one of the best employers in America,” Digi-Key Vice President of Human Resources Shane Zutz said in a news release. “We are laser-focused on being a company that puts our team members first and we are proud that our employees can feel that. None of the work we do is possible without them, and the tremendous growth we’ve experienced over the last couple of years has been thanks to their unwavering work ethic and passion for improvement.”

This is the second-straight year that Digi-Key has made the list.

Digi-Key noted that it has experienced more than 80% growth in 24 months. The company — No. 4 on MDM’s 2022 Top Electronics Distributors List — opened the doors to its 2.2 million square foot Product Distribution Center expansion (PDCe) this past August, allowing the company to scale capacity to keep up with what it says is “skyrocketing” demand. A Feb. 7 news release also detailed that the company added more than 550 new suppliers in 2022 across its core business, Digi-Key Marketplace and Fulfilled by Digi-Key program. It also added over 75,000 new SKUs to its core business unit last year.

Both lists included a number of key industrial manufacturers that supply the industrial, commercial and building supplies distributors MDM covers.