Fort Worth-based MORSCO, a distributor of commercial and residential plumbing products, heating and cooling equipment, and pipe, valves and fittings, finished its acquisition on Oct. 31 of Fortiline Waterworks, a portfolio company of CHS Capital LLC of Chicago and the third largest waterworks distributor in the United States.
Chip Hornsby, CEO of MORSCO, said one of the company’s biggest goals of 2016 was to continue to expand its footprint in the Sunbelt region of the United States. He said with recent acquisitions in North Carolina and Georgia along with the Fortiline acquisition, the company now has a presence in 17 states.
Mike Swedick remains president and CEO of Fortiline, which continues to operate as a standalone company, responsible for the waterworks supplies distribution inside of MORSCO.
According to Swedick, Fortiline, similar to MORSCO, plans to strategically grow its presence in its existing markets while looking to enter new markets throughout the Southeast.
Fortiline Waterworks, founded in 1997, is headquartered in Concord, N.C., and distributes through a network of 42 branches in 12 states in the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest.
MORSCO was founded nearly 100 years ago in Fort Worth and today has more than 140 branch locations, more than $1 billion in sales and more than 2,000 associates in 12 states. The company’s family of operating units consists of Express Pipe & Supply (California); Farnsworth Wholesale Company (Arizona); Morrison Supply Co. (Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana, Kansas); Murray Supply Co. (North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia); Wholesale Specialties (Colorado); DeVore & Johnson (Georgia); and MORSCO’s premier showroom offering in these markets, Expressions Home Gallery.
MORSCO plans to convert a select number of Morrison Supply Co.’s waterworks branches to Fortiline stores to leverage Fortiline’s vendor and customer relationships. MORSCO and Fortiline will work together to expand product lines in existing branches as well as in new locations.