Why This Matters to Distributors: Applied Industrial Technologies is leaning harder into automation, engineered solutions, cross-selling, and acquisitions as it seeks to grow annual sales to $7 billion over the next five years.
Applied Industrial Technologies is setting a higher growth target as the industrial distributor looks to acquisitions, automation, cross-selling, and expansion of its engineered solutions businesses to drive its next phase of growth.
Applied increased its intermediate sales target to $7 billion from $5.5 billion, putting the company on a path to grow beyond the $4.97 billion in sales it generated in fiscal 2026. The company said it believes the target can be reached within five years, depending in part on acquisition activity and broader economic conditions.
The strategy marks a continued shift by Applied beyond its traditional service center distribution business and toward higher-growth technical capabilities in automation, fluid power, and flow control.
“We enter fiscal 2027 with the strongest market position in Applied’s history,” President and CEO Neil Schrimsher told analysts on the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call. He said acquisitions could make a larger contribution to growth as the company moves deeper into those technical markets.
The company enters that push with stronger sales and earnings.
Sales increased 10.4% to $1.353 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter from $1.225 billion a year earlier, while net income rose 10% to $118.6 million from $107.8 million. The quarter ended June 30.
For the full fiscal year, sales increased 8.8% to $4.967 billion from $4.563 billion. Net income increased 5.5% to $414.5 million from $393 million.
Underlying fourth-quarter sales growth was driven by higher volume as customers increased spending on maintenance, repair and operations products and capital projects. Applied said sales increased across 20 of its 30 largest end markets, up from 17 in the previous quarter.
Acquisitions are expected to play a larger role in reaching the $7 billion target.
Applied has completed more than 18 acquisitions since 2018, and Schrimsher said the company sees an increasingly productive environment for additional deals.
“Our pipeline remains active, and we believe M&A contribution could be more meaningful to our sales growth through fiscal 2027 and beyond as we further execute our strategy,” Schrimsher said. “The M&A backdrop is increasingly productive as targets face heightened competition, required operational investments and extended ownership life cycles.”
Applied expects to have $2 billion in balance sheet capacity available for capital deployment and has made M&A a top priority. The company is evaluating targets across both of its business segments.
Importantly, Applied’s fiscal 2027 forecast does not include sales from acquisitions that have not yet been completed, leaving M&A as a potential source of additional growth beyond the company’s existing business.
Asked about the acquisition pipeline, Schrimsher said Applied is considering deals of varying sizes.
“We continue to be active,” he said. “There can be some smaller bolt-ons and then there are perhaps a few larger properties that I think we will either evaluate or look at coming to market over a period.”
Applied is looking for companies that can add capabilities in fluid power, flow control and automation while also expanding its Service Center presence.
“We know what priorities matter. We know good prospects, good targets,” Schrimsher said. “And so those dialogues and exchanges continue.”
Hydradyne, the fluid power distributor Applied acquired about 18 months ago, provides a model for that strategy. Schrimsher said Hydradyne’s sales increased at a double-digit rate in the second half of fiscal 2026 from a year earlier, while its margins improved by more than 2 percentage points as Applied worked through acquisition integration and cost savings.
Automation is emerging as one of Applied’s most important business-development opportunities.
Automation sales increased more than 20% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, the strongest growth in more than four years, as customers increased spending on robotics, machine vision, and digital technologies.
Applied is targeting applications ranging from semiconductor manufacturing and data centers to food and beverage production, consumer packaging, and autonomous mobile robots.
“We’re doing more with productized solutions that can help in robotics and autonomous mobile robots through facilities as well as vision systems in and around consumer packaging and goods,” Schrimsher said.
Applied also sees artificial intelligence helping drive demand for physical automation systems inside customer facilities.
“We’re helping customers as they think about AI, putting things in place in their facilities that help that with robotics and vision and get returns for them,” he said.
Schrimsher said Applied expects robotics and collaborative robots to remain a multi-year growth market and will continue evaluating capabilities that could expand its automation offering.
Technology markets are becoming a larger part of that strategy. Technology now represents more than 15% of Engineered Solutions sales, with Applied participating through automation, fluid power, and flow control. The company cited continued business development in semiconductor manufacturing and data centers.
Applied also plans to generate more growth by selling multiple technical capabilities to customers that historically may have bought from only one part of the company.
Schrimsher said Applied’s knowledge of customer facilities gives the distributor an opening to move from traditional maintenance products into larger technical projects.
“We’re seeing increased number of customers looking to us as we know their operating facilities so well that we can help them with advancements in fluid power systems, robotics and vision,” he said.
Applied also is finding opportunities to sell repair services, pumps, and valves from its flow control businesses into existing accounts, Schrimsher said.
That cross-selling strategy is particularly important because it allows Applied to use relationships built through its large Service Center network to introduce customers to higher-value automation and engineered solutions.
National strategic accounts were among the strongest parts of Applied’s Service Center business in the fourth quarter. Sales to small and midsized local customers increased at a high-single-digit rate from a year earlier, another potential base for expanding sales across multiple Applied businesses.
The shift is already showing up in Applied’s sales mix.
Engineered Solutions sales increased 12.9% organically in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, led by double-digit growth in automation and fluid power. Organic sales in the Service Center segment increased 7.9%.
Momentum continued after the quarter ended.
Schrimsher said July orders in Engineered Solutions were up in the mid-20% range, with strong activity in automation, fluid power, and process flow control. Backlog increased from a year earlier and improved sequentially during a period when it would normally be flat.
Applied expects fiscal 2027 sales to increase 4% to 6.5%, although management is taking a more cautious view of growth later in the fiscal year because of tougher comparisons and uncertainty surrounding trade policy and geopolitical conditions.
But the longer-term strategy goes well beyond waiting for an industrial recovery.
Applied is positioning itself around plant modernization, robotics, artificial intelligence, infrastructure investment, and rising demand for technical support, while using acquisitions to add capabilities and cross-selling to push those capabilities deeper into its existing customer base.
“Our ongoing evolution has positioned Applied at the intersection of exciting and powerful growth trends tied to rising technical support at customer plants, industrial system upgrades, automation adoption, including physical AI integration and the build-out of critical infrastructure across both legacy and emerging customer verticals,” Schrimsher said.
The $7 billion target puts a number on that strategy. Applied is betting that its next phase of growth will come not simply from selling more traditional industrial supplies, but from becoming a larger provider of the automation, engineering, and technical capabilities its customers need to modernize their operations.
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