Kevin Short has spent more than three decades in wholesale distribution, with stops in chemicals, plastics, and now industrial supplies as CEO of ORS Nasco, North America's largest pure wholesaler of MRO products. He took the role on January 1, 2020, 10 weeks before COVID shut the world down. Since then he has led the company through a transition from One Equity Partners to Wynnchurch Capital and four acquisitions in two years.
In his appearance on the In the Mind of a Distributor podcast, Kevin walked through how he thinks about modern wholesale distribution, what private equity life actually looks like from the CEO seat, and where distributors should be investing the next marginal dollar.
Below are six lessons any distributor can take from the conversation.
Lesson 1: Stop spending your last dollar on inventory
Kevin's central thesis is a direct challenge to a piece of distribution advice that has been gospel for decades. The old rule was simple: if you have one last dollar, put it in inventory.
"I was told, well, if you have one last dollar to spend, spend it on inventory," Kevin said. "Today, I think that that's no longer true. Rather, I think they should spend it either on a salesperson that can solve a customer's problem or some technology that makes them easier to do business with."
The same logic applies to manufacturers. "If a manufacturer has one last dollar to spend, they should not spend it on finished good inventory. They should spend it on R &D and NPIs."
The argument is that finished goods inventory should sit further up the chain, with master wholesalers like ORS Nasco that exist specifically to hold it. When everyone in the supply chain duplicates inventory, the whole system slows down. When each player invests the marginal dollar in what only they can do (a great salesperson, a better product, a faster system), the whole chain speeds up.
For distributors, the practical question is whether your next hire or your next software investment would do more for customer experience than another rack of stock.
Lesson 2: Every layer of the supply chain should stick to its lane
Related to the inventory point is a broader thesis Kevin keeps coming back to in his speaking engagements.
"I'm on a bit of a mission to try to unblur a lot of the lines that have been unfortunately blurred across the entire supply chain over many years," he said. "Eager people wanting to say yes to lots of other people end up getting themselves into activities and commitments that aren't necessarily in the real house."
The fix, in Kevin's framing, is to get back to basics. "If we can roll back the clock a little bit and get back to basics and have every step of the supply chain perform the key functions that are required of them at an expert level, as opposed to dabbling in a lot of other people's sandboxes... I think everyone ends up being more successful and everybody ends up making a little bit more money."
Distributors that try to be a manufacturer for some products, a 3PL for others, and a software vendor on the side often end up mediocre at all three. Picking your lane and going deep in it is harder than it sounds, but Kevin's argument is that the math works out better in the long run.
Lesson 3: Hire people who've walked in your customers' shoes
When Kevin took over ORS Nasco, he made significant changes to the leadership team. The hiring filter was specific: bring in people who had spent years on the customer side of the relationship.
"I'm a lifelong distributor who's only recently fell into wholesale," Kevin said. "I recruited a lot of other outstanding people from different really top-notch distribution companies, figuring if we had maximum empathy and understanding of the client, we would eventually have all the success that we wanted to have."
This applies in both directions. A wholesaler should hire distributor-side veterans. A distributor expanding into a new vertical or building a solutions arm should hire from inside the industry it wants to serve. Customer empathy isn't something you can manufacture from market research. It comes from people who have spent years sitting in the customer's seat and feeling the same pressures.
Lesson 4: Get out of the boardroom and ask your customers what's broken
Kevin has been on the road every week for more than 30 years. The reason is simple. The customer is the best source of information about what's working and what isn't.
"Distributors aren't shy individuals and you just got to give them an opportunity to make you better and they will," Kevin said. "Through the eyes of the customer, I find to be just that much more effective than trying to figure that stuff out from the comfort of your own boardroom."
For CEOs and senior leaders, the trap is obvious. The further you get from the customer, the more your view of the business gets filtered through dashboards, internal reports, and middle management commentary. None of that is wrong, but none of it replaces a customer sitting across from you telling you what they actually need.
Lesson 5: M&A deals marinate for years before they close
ORS Nasco has completed four acquisitions in roughly two years under Wynnchurch ownership. None of them happened on a timeline you could plan around.
"If you think your close rates are difficult in sales, your close rates in the M and A game are much, much worse," Kevin said. The reason is that family-owned businesses sell when they're ready, not when the buyer is ready.
"Some of this work had been marinating for three, four, even five years," Kevin said. "When the companies are ready to sell, you have to be ready to be a buyer. You can't do that in the inverse order."
For distributors thinking about an acquisition strategy, the implication is that the funnel needs to be built years in advance. The conversations that close in 2026 are the ones that started in 2021 or 2022. There's no shortcut, and there's no way to force a deal that isn't ready.
Lesson 6: When integrating acquisitions, first do no harm
Of the four companies ORS Nasco has acquired, only one currently runs on the core ORS ERP. Kevin is in no rush to change that.
"I think the important thing when you do a deal is to first do no harm," he said. "I'd much rather do it well than do it rapidly."
The risk in moving fast is that you erase what made the acquired company worth buying in the first place. Kevin pointed out that the businesses ORS has bought are successful companies doing very good work. Speeding through integration in the name of synergy can undo a lot of that work before anyone notices it's gone.
The longer-term goal is real consolidation. One phone call, one truck, one bill. But that gets built over time, not in a single quarter. "We don't have to do it rapidly," Kevin said, "but we do want to do it well."
One thing Kevin is still trying to figure out
When Benj asked Kevin what he was still curious about, two things came up. One was AI. "I have a lot to learn about that. I'm fascinated by what that might look like for the balance of my career."
The second was deeper and more personal. "The biggest curiosity point comes back to the people," Kevin said. "How can I become the best leader that they deserve... how can I put nearly a thousand people in a position to be wildly successful and understanding what makes each and every one of them tick."
For a CEO who has spent 30 years building distribution businesses, that's a telling answer. The product portfolio and the M&A strategy can be figured out. Leading people well, at scale, never stops being a curiosity project.
FAQ
What is a pure wholesale distributor or master distributor?
A pure wholesaler sells only to other distributors, not to end users. That separation matters because it means the wholesaler never competes with its customers. ORS Nasco is North America's largest pure wholesaler of industrial MRO supplies, with roughly 190,000 SKUs across categories like safety, hand tools, chemicals, welding, abrasives, and adhesives.
Where should distributors invest their next dollar instead of inventory?
According to Kevin Short, the better investments are a salesperson who can solve a customer problem or technology that makes the distributor easier to do business with. The thesis is that inventory should sit further up the supply chain with master wholesalers, freeing distributors to invest in capabilities that directly improve the customer experience.
What does it mean to "unblur the lines" in the distribution supply chain?
It means having each layer of the supply chain (manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors) focus on the functions only that layer can do well, rather than dabbling in adjacent roles. Kevin's argument is that when every player operates at an expert level in its own lane, the whole supply chain becomes faster and more profitable.
How long do most distribution M&A deals take to close?
In Kevin's experience, conversations with family-owned distribution businesses often marinate for three to five years before a deal closes. The buyer has to be patient and ready when the seller is ready, not the other way around. Building a strong acquisition pipeline means having relationships in place years before any transaction happens.
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