While QXO's now-public, possibly Quixotic bid to buy Beacon Building Products is hogging the attention, construction supply dealers from coast to coast are making plans to erect new stores in 2025. Also, details are trickling in on the final deals made in 2024--the biggest year for LBM M&A in a decade.
QXO has been trying to acquire Beacon since last summer. On Jan. 15, it announced an offer to buy the roofing-exteriors specialist for roughly $11 billion. The all-cash bid works out to $124.25 per share, or roughly 37% above the latest 90-day average price.
Beacon replied by rejecting the offer, saying QXO's price "significantly undervalues" the company. It also noted that QXO has never increased its bid. This could suggest that Beacon would be open to selling if it could get a higher price. Indeed, QXO said Beacon told it in early December that it was contacting other potential buyers. By going public, QXO may be trying to generate support among Beacon's biggest shareholders to pressure Beacon into taking QXO's offer.
Beacon has nearly 650 locations in the U.S. and Canada (they're the black dots on the map above), of which nearly three dozen are for its Dealers Choice distribution subsidiary.
As for actual deals made so far in 2025, Webb Analytics has found only two: Aubuchon Ace Hardware's purchase of three Noble Ace Hardware locations in Vermont and New York, and Westlake Ace Hardware's acquisition of Augusta (KS) Ace Home Center.
Most of the pins on the map above are green, signifying plans by dealers to open greenfield locations this year. Among them are a consolidation project in Jacksonville, FL, where Builders FirstSource will close two facilities and move them into a big new space. In addition, 84 Lumber says it will open truss plants in South Carolina and Colorado and a components facility in New Hampshire. Erie Materials is opening a facility in Poughkeepsie, NY, and Drexel is doing the same in Kewaskum, WI. Other plans involve McCoy's Building Supply, Matt's Building Materials, Parr Lumber, Short & Paulk, Three Bears Alaska, and.a slew of Ace Hardware stores.
Webb Analytics' next annual deals report is expected to come out around Jan. 31. The final numbers aren't in yet, but they are expected to total close to 1,150 facilities acquired in nearly 160 deals involving over 75 buyers.