France-based Sonepar Group  has accelerated the distribution industry's consolidation story while also expanding the distribution giant's footprint with six acquisitions before the end of the first quarter.

The brisk activity calls to mind the company's compelling, landscape-shifting purchase of IDG in September. As Jason Kliewer, managing director for the investment banking firm Baird told MDM last year, Sonepar saw a "unique asset" worth pursuing. And the company has continued that approach in the new year by amassing targets in U.S. markets  and around the globe.

Its most recent purchase, the acquisition of Electrical Distributors, Dallas, TX, expands Sonepar's reach in Texas and the Southwest. That purchase came just a week after the company announced plans to acquire Denver, CO-based Quality Electrical Distribution, which has 13 locations throughout North Dakota, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.

February saw Sonepar acquire the German electrical wholesale distributor Solar Deutschland, which has 27 branches and 360 employees and expands the company's presence in northern Germany.

The company in January said it would purchase Vanas Beyond Tools, Antwerp, Belgium, a family-owned distributor of tooling and lifting accessories that employs 45, and also that it had bought Gruppo Matel Spa, Padua, Italy, an electrical distributor that operates primarily in northeast Italy but also in Romania.

Also in January, Sonepar USA affiliate OneSource Distributors LLC, Oceanside, CA, acquired RASKO Supply, Honolulu, HI, and RASCO Supply, Kaua’I, HI.