Executive Search Success Story: Building a Synergy and Integration Leadership Team for a Private-Equity-Backed Industrial Distribution Buy-and-Build

How JRG Partners executed a confidential, multi-role North American executive search strategy that equipped a private-equity-backed industrial MRO and specialty distribution platform with the operating, M&A, systems, procurement, and branch leadership required to integrate twelve acquired distributors, capture purchasing and pricing synergies, and build a single operating company ahead of a planned recapitalization.

The Challenge

A private equity sponsor had assembled twelve industrial distributors into a $1.3B platform with a thesis built on purchasing scale, pricing discipline, and cross-selling, but two years in, the acquired companies still ran eight ERP systems, bought from suppliers on legacy terms, priced inconsistently across branches, and operated under founder-era managers. Synergies in the investment model were less than 30% realized, and the sponsor needed a credible integration story before a recapitalization planned in eighteen months. Executive leadership and the sponsor identified several critical vulnerabilities threatening the plan:

• Twelve acquired distributors on eight ERP systems with no consolidated data
• Supplier programs negotiated separately with purchasing synergies largely unrealized
• Pricing inconsistent across 140 branches with wide margin dispersion on identical products
• No common branch operating model, KPIs, or management cadence
• Acquisition process managed ad hoc with no diligence-to-integration handoff
• A recapitalization in eighteen months requiring demonstrated synergy capture

Recognizing that the recapitalization depended on integration and synergy capture, the sponsor and CEO engaged JRG Partners to recruit a Chief Operating & Integration Officer, Vice President of Mergers & Acquisitions, Vice President of ERP & Systems Integration, Vice President of Procurement & Pricing Synergies, and Vice President of Branch Operations. The company required an executive search partner with deep distribution and buy-and-build expertise and access to leaders who had integrated distributors at scale.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

Private Equity Buy & Build Integration Focus

JRG Partners maintains a dedicated practice recruiting integration and platform leadership for private-equity-backed buy-and-build strategies, with a clear understanding of synergy capture, systems consolidation, and the leadership profiles that convert federations into operating companies.

Distribution Integration Experience

Our firm has extensive experience recruiting executives who have integrated distributors onto common ERP platforms, consolidated supplier programs, and harmonized pricing across large branch networks.

Multi-Role Execution

Our team specializes in running coordinated operating, M&A, systems, procurement, and branch leadership searches in parallel, ensuring leaders are selected as a complementary unit aligned to a single integration plan.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Synergy Plan Alignment

Our consultants partnered directly with the sponsor’s operating partner, CEO, and board to review the investment model synergies, systems landscape, supplier terms, pricing data, and branch performance, defining five executive profiles aligned with the integration and recapitalization timeline.

Phase 2 — Talent Identification & Mapping

Our research team performed an extensive talent mapping initiative targeting operating, M&A, systems, procurement, and branch executives at industrial and specialty distributors and private-equity-backed consolidation platforms who had led documented integrations and synergy programs. Over 400 executives were systematically assessed across these sectors.

Phase 3 — Candidate Engagement

Priority during outreach was given to leaders with a documented history of consolidating multiple ERP systems in distribution, renegotiating supplier programs at platform scale, harmonizing pricing across branch networks, deploying common branch operating models, and building diligence-to-integration processes. Only candidates meeting these strict performance baselines advanced.

Phase 4 — Selection Process

Finalists presented integration and synergy plans to the sponsor, CEO, and board, completed structured leadership assessments, and underwent reference verification focused on quantified synergy, systems, and margin outcomes.

Key Outcomes

• 400+ distribution, integration, and corporate development executive profiles mapped across North America.
• Successfully placed a synchronized leadership tier spanning operations and integration, M&A, systems, procurement, and branch operations within seven months.
• Consolidated eight ERP systems into one within fifteen months.
• Delivered $31M in annual procurement savings.
• Improved gross margin by 190 basis points through pricing harmonization.
• Completed the recapitalization above plan with synergies 95% realized.