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Strategic buyers such as Grainger, Applied Industrial Technologies, Ferguson and other large, public and family-owned distributors are pursuing growth through acquisitions to meet market expectations, take advantage of high levels of cash on their balance sheets, and reach new geographic and product markets.

This article, the third in a series on current conditions in distribution M&A, explores strategic buyer trends in today’s distribution M&A markets.

Allan Chartier – president, CEO and owner of Midwest Industrial Tools Inc. – wasn’t necessarily looking to sell his Omaha, NE-based industrial MROP distribution company.

But when DGI Supply, a DoAll Company, approached him, he gave …