The part of the company I sold was the distribution for stainless steel materials. We sold SS pumps, valves, tubing to companies like Campbell Soup, Hunt Wesson and others. My competitor tried for years get into our customers but our relationships kept them out. My new company, ADUC INC. retaines my patents for welding high purity SS and I still do fabrication. It has much higher profit margins.
The distribution game has changed so much. All of my manufactures use to be USA owned but today most of the parts come from China and are out of spec. Junk!