A $10 Billion Distributor Just Entered Your Market

On March 12, Imperial Dade and BradyPLUS closed their merger. The combined company: over $10 billion in revenue. More than 13,500 employees. 125+ distribution facilities across the U.S. and Canada. And a track record of 97 acquisitions since Robert and Jason Tillis took the helm in 2007.

Ninety-seven.

Then last month — acquisition number 98. Enterprise Paper Holdings in Canada. They're not slowing down.

Read the merger announcement.

If you sell paper, packaging, janitorial supplies, cleaning chemicals, or foodservice disposables — this is the biggest competitive shift in your category in a decade. And most independent distributors haven't even noticed yet.

You've been reading about Sysco all year — the Restaurant Depot deal, the Edward Don acquisition, the FTC fight. That's the food side of distribution.

Imperial Dade is the other side — the jan/san, packaging, and disposables side. And they've been quietly doing what Sysco does loudly. While Sysco makes headlines with one $29 billion deal, Imperial Dade has done 97 deals in 17 years. One region at a time. One competitor at a time.

Here's their playbook —

They find a strong regional distributor. Family-owned, good relationships, solid reputation. They make the offer. They keep the name on the building. They keep the local sales team. But they plug the operation into Imperial Dade's purchasing power, logistics network, and product catalog.

Sound familiar? It should. Singer Equipment is running the same playbook on the equipment side — 8 acquisitions, 29 locations. Imperial Dade has done it 97 times.

The distributor who sold janitorial supplies to your accounts five years ago? There's a good chance Imperial Dade owns them now. And if they don't yet — they're looking.

See the full acquisition timeline — 97 deals since 2007.

Let's be specific about what changes when Imperial Dade enters your market —

They can undercut you on price. $10 billion in purchasing power means manufacturer pricing you'll never see. On commodity products — trash bags, paper towels, foil pans, portion cups — they can price below your cost.

They can bundle wider. An independent might sell packaging OR janitorial OR foodservice supplies. Imperial Dade sells all three. One truck, one invoice, one rep. That's a consolidation pitch your customers are going to hear.

They keep the local face. This is the part that hurts most. They don't come in with Imperial Dade trucks and Imperial Dade polos. They keep the local brand. Your customer might not even know their distributor got acquired until the pricing changes.

A $10 billion company has scale. They have price. They have logistics. But there are three things they will never have — speed, flexibility, and the owner's cell phone number.

Here's a specific framework you can hand to your sales team this week. Three calls. Three purposes. One new account.

CALL 1 — THE RECON CALL

Purpose: Find out what they're buying, who they're buying from, and what's broken.

Don't pitch. Don't quote. Don't even bring a catalog. Just call and ask:

"Hey — I'm [name] from [company], we deliver to a few restaurants in your area. I'm not trying to sell you anything today. I just want to know — if you could change one thing about your current distributor, what would it be?"

Then shut up and listen.

You'll hear one of three things —

"They keep shorting my orders." That's a reliability problem. You can solve that.

"I can never get my rep on the phone." That's a service problem. You can definitely solve that.

"Their prices keep going up with no explanation." That's a trust problem. You were born to solve that.

Write it down. This is your ammunition for Call 2.

CALL 2 — THE VALUE DROP

Purpose: Come back with something specific that solves what they told you on Call 1.

This call happens 3–5 days after Call 1. Not 3 weeks. Not "when you get around to it." 3 to 5 days — while they still remember the conversation.

You're not calling with a full quote. You're calling with ONE thing —

If they said reliability: "I pulled the delivery schedule for your area — I can guarantee a Tuesday/Friday window. If I'm ever late, call my cell."

If they said service: "Here's my cell number. You'll never hit a voicemail. Try me right now if you want."

If they said pricing: "I priced out your top 5 disposable SKUs against what you're probably paying. I'm not cheaper on everything — but I'm cheaper on the three you order most. Here's the breakdown."

The point isn't to be cheaper on everything. The point is to prove you LISTENED. That's what Imperial Dade can't do at scale. Their rep is managing 200 accounts. You're managing 50. That math is your advantage.

CALL 3 — THE CLOSE

Purpose: Make it easy to say yes.

This call happens 5–7 days after Call 2. You already know their pain. You already showed you can solve it. Now remove the last barrier — risk.

"Here's what I want to do — let me run your next two weeks of [disposable/janitorial/whatever] orders. Same products, my pricing. Free delivery on the first three orders. If I don't earn your business in two weeks, no hard feelings — you go right back to your current guy."

That's it. Two-week trial. Free delivery. No contract. No commitment.

The operator who's frustrated with their current distributor has zero reason to say no. And once your truck is showing up twice a week, you're not a trial anymore — you're their guy.

Imperial Dade wins on price and catalog. You win on three things they physically cannot replicate —

1. Speed of response. Their customer calls a 1-800 number. Yours calls your cell. That gap gets wider every time Imperial Dade absorbs another company and adds another layer of process.

2. Flexibility on the truck. Your driver can throw an extra case on the truck last minute. Their driver is running a route optimized by an algorithm that doesn't know your customer's name.

3. The relationship. The owner of a 30-table Italian restaurant doesn't want a "distribution partner." He wants the guy who remembers his name, knows he's closed on Mondays, and shows up 10 minutes early. That's you. That will never be a $10 billion company.

Imperial Dade has 97 acquisitions, $10 billion in revenue, and 13,500 employees. They are coming for your market if they're not already there.

But they can't make the recon call. They can't drop a personalized value pitch 3 days later. They can't hand over a cell phone number and say "try me right now."

The 3-call framework doesn't require scale. It requires speed, attention, and showing up. That's your edge. Use it this week.