The company supplies goods and services for communications, security, networking, audio-visual, and industrial control applications.

The two brothers received a $20,000 loan from their mother to get the business started, and within 10 years grew revenue to $10 million.

In 1975, Anixter gained a listing on the New York Stock Exchange, and by the end of the 1970s it had $268 million in sales and 38 warehouses in the U.S., nine in Canada, three in the U.K. and one in the Netherlands.

[4] With the breakup of AT&T in early 1984, Anixter went about hiring executives from phone companies and suppliers and invested heavily in its telecommunications business.

In the later 1990s and 2000s, Anixter purchased Pacer Electronics, Pentacon, Walters Hexagon, DDI, Infast Group, MFU, Eurofast, Total Supply Solutions, Quality Screw & Nut and Quality Screw de Mexico, World Class Wire & Cable, Sofrasar, CamilleGergen, CLARK Security Products and Jorvex.