Volume 15, Issue 3 - August 2022
WESTERN UNITED RANKS #1 Nationally in SALES PER EMPLOYEE
The Supplier
Electrical Wholesaling magazine’s June 2022 edition has named Western United as the #1 distributor in the U.S. as measured by sales per employee. Sale per employee is a key indicator of how lean and efficient an organization conducts its business. The ranking is based on calendar year 2021 results with sales of $3.9 Million per employee and is up from the #3 ranking in 2020. This is the 16th consecutive year that WUE has been named as one of the top three ranked companies in this category. This accomplishment is also a testament to the strong commitment that our members have shown in purchasing their electric utility, construction & maintenance materials, tools and supplies from the company that they own. In addition to the #1 ranking, WUE is also ranked #55 in the country in terms of overall sales up from #63 last year.
A Quarterly Publication of Western United Electric Supply Corporation
Warehouse Locations:
Colorado
100 Bromley Business Pkwy Brighton CO 80603 Phone (303) 659-2356
New Mexico
7311 La Morada PL NW Albuquerque NM 87120 Phone (505) 346-9572
Utah
793 East Enterprise Drive St George UT 84790 Phone (435) 254-6623
1010 N Hwy 198 Salem UT 84653 (801) 318-2898
SERVING:
Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada,
Wyoming, Nebraska, Arizona, Idaho, and Kansas
Employee Spotlight
Meet Brian Peterson
Brian has been with Western United Electric since Feb 2015 as the Director of Warehouse Operations and brings over 20 years experience in operations. In the last seven years Brian has changed processes at WUE to become more efficient, lean and stay on top of the daily supply and demand. His dedication, innovative thinking and ability to multitask is an asset to WUE. Brian has created many relationships within our organization and outside our organization to keep WUE moving forward and meet members demands.
Although Brian grew up in Wisconsin and lived in Arizona, he has now made his home in Colorado for the last 7 years. He recently became engaged to his fiancé (Sarah), he is a current father of three children (Landyn 13, Sayla 11, and Ava 9) and a soon to be step-father for two additional children (Lila 11 and Jamison 8). When Brian is not being a baseball dad to the boys and a softball dad to the girls he enjoys golfing, cornhole and watching his hometown teams, Go Badgers/Packers!
WUE Sponsors CREA’s Guatemala Electrification Efforts
Western United is a proud sponsor of CREA’s efforts in Guatemala by volunteer linemen from Colorado and Oklahoma to electrify the village of La Montanita de la Virgen. The program, organized by Colorado Rural Electric Association working with NRECA International, the philanthropic arm of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, will build an electric system for the small village which is about three hours northeast of Guatemala City. The system will provide lights and power to 72 homes, a school, a church and a health center. Western United provided each of the linemen 5 long sleeve T-Shirts to wear during their time working in the country. Access to electricity is a life changing event for the village and Western United is honored to have participated.
WESTERN UNITED ST. GEORGE UTAH
NOW OPEN FOR BUSINESS
Western United is proud to announce the opening of our fourth warehouse in St. George, Utah. The 15K square foot warehouse and yard on 2.2 acres opened on June 6th, 2022. This expansion will serve WUE’s growing customer base in Utah, Nevada and Arizona. A staff of two have been hired and are actively filling the shelves & yard and establishing relationships in the local market. Two additional staff are scheduled to be added by year end. The facility is directly adjacent to Dixie Power, WUE’s largest customer in the region. An Open House for utilities and manufacturers in the region is tentatively scheduled for November 1st.
ERMCO Transformer Update
Below is an excerpt from a recent letter Western United received from ERMCO President and CEO Tim Mills discussing their efforts to serve customers in the ongoing supply chain crisis as well as their plans for future expansions. Western United has been a longtime partner with ERMCO and we look forward to furthering our relationship in the coming years.
ERMCO Partners: We continue to face an unprecedented environment related to securing materials, building transformers, and serving our customers. As we start the 2nd half of the year production versus prior month is up 6% for Poles, up 5% for Pads, yet down 15% for 3PH due to part shortages and a press being down. We’ve begun accepting orders for 2023 allocations from those customers with VCA’s in place. We’re well on our way to spend over $20M this year to prepare for increased production rates and improving our technology through investments in equipment like our lasers. We appreciate your partnership and together, our future is bright.
We are putting maximum effort today towards delivering more transformers to the industry, even while also preparing for growth in new products, components and services. I’m convinced that we will serve our customers better as one enterprise, leveraging the people and skillsets across our Dyersburg, Raleigh, Greeneville, and Antioch facilities. For this reason, we are bringing our engineering, marketing, and sales teams together as one enterprise-wide commercial team.
This framework of aligned resources will enable us to better serve you as a valued partner. Our communication, effectiveness, and efficiency will all certainly excel with this change. Most importantly though, we’ll be able to have a combined team to react to customer inputs and market demands, whether related to new products, modified products, or even complementary products and services. This unified commercial team will also help us ensure we demonstrate a core value of following-through on commitments.
Please share my excitement in what’s ahead for ERMCO and our partners. We’re thrilled to be on this journey with you and know that this change will enable us to do great things in this market together.
