Transcat, a Marketer of Grade Test, Measurement and Calibration Instruments and Services, has acquired competitor Westcon in a cash-stock transaction valued at about $7.2 million.
Based in Portland, OR, Westcon is a regional distributor of test and measurement instruments with about 1,800 customers in the Western U.S. Transcat serves more than 15,000 customers throughout the U.S. and parts of Canada.
Jay Woychick, vice president of marketing for Transcat, says the acquisition “gives us a foothold” in the calibration market in the Pacific Northwest.
“Westcon’s been in the business for 25 years, and we’ve competed against them out on the West Coast for a long time,” he says. “Our closest lab is Los Angeles. When we sold in the Pacific Northwest, we were competing against a strong, local, high-quality competitor.”
Transcat will maintain the Westcon brand for now, but in 12 to 18 months “it will evolve to become Transcat,” Woychick says.
The West Coast DC was a key selling point for Transcat. “Right now we ship everything out of our DC in Rochester,” Woychick says. The deal gives Transcat a product distribution point in Portland, which will serve the Western states.
So rather than taking five to seven days to ship from Rochester to L.A., “it will take only a day or two,” Woychick says. “That has a tremendous upside for us in terms of growing our share in that marketplace.”