Good morning. If your supply house has felt slower to quote and quicker to run short this year, its own numbers explain what is pulling its attention away from you.
Top story — The biggest electrical distributor is following the data centers
Wesco International reported record second-quarter net sales of $6.67 billion, up 13.0% year over year, with organic sales up 12.6%. Data center sales were $1.5 billion, up approximately 45% year over year, and total company backlog set a record, up approximately 60% against a year ago (Wesco International, second quarter 2026 results, 30 July 2026).
The segments show where the business has moved. Communications and Security Solutions, the low-voltage, network cabling and security side, was $2.68 billion, up 18.4%. Electrical and Electronic Solutions, the traditional electrical business, was $2.51 billion, up 11.2%. Utility and Broadband Solutions was $1.47 billion, up 7.0% (Wesco).
Low voltage is now the company’s biggest segment and its fastest growing. Chairman and CEO John Engel said the backlog growth was “fueled by multi-year customer commitments,” and pointed to a “significant multi-year Grid Services award” from a hyperscale data center customer (Wesco).
Quick hits
Margins went up with it. Gross margin was 21.8%, up 70 basis points year over year, and adjusted EBITDA margin was 7.3%, up 60 basis points (Wesco).
They raised the year. Wesco said it is “significantly raising” its full-year 2026 outlook after the first half (Wesco).
Backlog is your number. A backlog up roughly 60% means a growing share of product is spoken for before it reaches a shelf (Wesco).
The Tip — Ask what is committed, not what is in stock
When you price a job that starts in six weeks, “we have it” and “we can get it for you” are different answers. Ask your branch two questions before you quote: is this stock already allocated to another order, and what is the lead time if I order today.
Distributors sitting on record backlogs fill their largest commitments first. That is not bad faith, it is sequencing, and small contractors sit at the back of that queue. Get the lead time in writing on anything long-lead, then put that quote’s expiry date on your own quote. A delay you did not cause should not eat your margin.
Tool watch — [Not sponsored]
If you quote work that depends on long-lead electrical gear, put the supplier’s quoted lead time and the date that quote expires directly on your own quote. It costs nothing and puts the risk where it belongs.
That’s the callout. See you next time.
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Sources: Wesco International, Inc. — Second Quarter 2026 Results, 30 July 2026, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.