About
Starting Semester:Assigned: No
Location: Charlotte
Power Utility Products Company
Client Profile
Power Utility Products Company (PUPCO) is a specialized wholesale distributor of electrical and utility products serving electrical contractors, municipalities, cooperatives, and utility companies across the United States. PUPCO operates as a high-service, technically oriented distributor focused exclusively on the power utility and electrical infrastructure markets — a niche that distinguishes it from broad-line electrical distributors.Industry: Electrical & Power Utility Product Distribution (NAICS: Electrical Apparatus & Equipment, Wiring Supplies, and Related Equipment Merchant Wholesalers)
Core Product Lines: PUPCO distributes a curated portfolio of products across product categories including underground distribution, overhead line hardware, conduit and fittings, wiring devices, metering equipment, and specialty utility-grade materials sourced from a vetted network of manufacturers.
Current Footprint: PUPCO currently operates multiple fulfillment centers strategically positioned to serve regional markets. The company's sales data indicates that market penetration is strongly correlated with warehouse proximity — approximately 16.7% of sales originate within 100 miles of a warehouse, 31.7% within 200 miles, and 54.2% within 300 miles, underscoring the critical role warehouse placement plays in revenue generation.
Growth Trajectory: PUPCO is in an active growth phase with a Bold, Hairy, Audacious Goal (BHAG) of reaching $100,000,000 in annual revenue. To support this objective, PUPCO has committed to opening three new warehouse facilities by December 31, 2028, including a planned 45,000 sq ft facility in the Houston, Texas market. The company is actively evaluating optimal facility sizing, geographic placement, and market entry strategy to maximize market penetration and drive revenue toward its BHAG.
Technical Capabilities: PUPCO operates on NetSuite ERP for inventory, order management, and financial reporting, providing rich transactional data to support demand modeling, geographic analysis, and logistics optimization.
Project Description
Power Utility Products Company (PUPCO) is a specialized wholesale distributor of electrical and power utility products serving electrical contractors, utilities, municipalities, and cooperatives across the United States. PUPCO is in an aggressive growth phase with a BHAG of $100,000,000 in annual revenue and has committed to opening a new 45,000 sq ft facility in Houston, Texas as its next planned location, with three additional warehouse facilities to follow by December 31, 2028.PUPCO's internal data confirms that warehouse proximity is the single greatest driver of market penetration — approximately 54% of sales originate within 300 miles of an existing facility. This creates both the strategic imperative and the analytical framework for the project: where should PUPCO's next three warehouses be located after Houston, and at what size, to maximize revenue growth and market penetration on the path to $100M?
The student team will be asked to answer three interconnected questions: (1) Which U.S. markets represent the highest-opportunity, underserved geographies given PUPCO's current warehouse footprint and the addition of the Houston facility? (2) Should PUPCO pursue a strategy of fewer large facilities (40,000–50,000 sq ft, consistent with the Houston model) or a greater number of smaller regional facilities — and what are the revenue, cost, and coverage tradeoffs of each approach? (3) What is the estimated cost to enter each identified market, and what is the projected revenue uplift and timeline to ROI under each scenario?
The team will develop an optimization model that incorporates geographic demand data (utilities employment, electrical wholesale market size by region), shipping cost structures, warehouse operating costs, and PUPCO's existing and planned network to produce a prioritized, defensible warehouse expansion roadmap for the three facilities following Houston.