United Electric

United Electric Supply Co., Inc. was founded in 1965 by its former owner, N.R. "Nick" Gianoulis, as a general-line distributor of electrical supplies to local industrial, commercial and construction customers in Delaware. Gianoulis and three employees started out in an 8,000 sq. ft. building, a former potato chip factory that had been converted from a barn on the Duncan estates in Wilmington, DE. "It was a materials handling nightmare," says Gianoulis of the building which had three levels and a dirt floor in the warehouse.

Nonetheless, the company began to grow as soon as it opened its doors. Within a few years, they began construction on a contemporary building designed for improved materials handling and customer service. Gianoulis and his staff moved into the new building in 1972. Over the next 15 years, the company expanded its geographical trading area and the breadth of its capabilities to the point where it outgrew its second building. A new service center was built in 1988 with continued expansion and improved customer service in mind.

Today, United Electric is a $180 million operation with more than 300 employees at sixteen locations throughout Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Northern Virginia and New Jersey . Administrative, accounting, personnel, training and marketing management functions are centralized at the headquarters in New Castle, DE.

As a major electrical supplier for the building and industrial trades, United had evolved in relation to technological and marketplace developments. Today, it offers the full range of products and services with concentration in seven major areas: industrial automation, lighting, wire/cable/conduit, gear and control, data communications, electro-mechanical and energy solutions.

Through a trained staff of engineers and product specialists, the company provides value-added service that included one of the largest inventories of top-quality, state-of-the-art products on the East Coast, engineering expertise, hand-on product testing and training, lighting design and application capabilities and the warehousing of customer inventory.

United Electric began 1996 as an employee-owned corporation. With the Former owner's retirement, the employees were able to purchase the business that they helped to build. United Electric looks forward to the future of the business with great anticipation as the new employee-owners begin the next chapter of the company's history.