You could search military archives and the odds probably would be in your favor of turning up at least one person with the surname Cable who reached the elevated rank of general. However, you are more likely to come across General Cable in the registry of companies. A company now headquarted in Kentucky was founded in New Jersey in 1927 under the name of General Cable. Today they are a multi-national conglomerate that Fortune magazine, in 2013, ranked as the 425th largest publicly listed company in the USA (with revenues in excess of $6,000 million).
What Do They Produce To Generate Such Revenue?
The answer is that General Cable (General Cable Technologies Corporation) manufactures – well, general cables. This is in the sense that they make just about any sort of cable required today by everything from the basic power generating plants all the way through electricity transmission and distribution to the small wiring found in telecommunications and data communication equipment – and just about everything in between.
This is not a monolithic monopoly but, if you need any type of cable for any type of application – the chances are that General Cable has it in their portfolio. However, since their set up incorporates a number of different brand names, your General Cable cable could be made by any one of their subsidiary concerns such as Phelps Dodge International Corporation or British Insulated Callender’s Cables (BICC) to name but two of many.
Hang On, I Did Not Mean The Corporate General Cable
I have a small electrical contracting business and I get work from a wide variety of industries so I am always requiring different types and ratings of electrical cable. What I meant was, where can I pick up supplies of both general purpose and specialized cable?
From the sounds of it, a conglomerate like General Cable is hardly likely to entertain me as one of its direct purchasers. So, where should I look?
Distributors
For any generic product type such as cable that is used just about anywhere, made in bulk but is, then, more often purchased in relatively small batches (albeit very often and by a large number of buyers), distribution is the practical solution for manufacturers and end users alike.
General Cable (and their competitors) can produce in bulk for maximum economy of scale and sell in large volume at an advantageous price to distributors. The distributors then offer the product ex-stock at a fair price to the smaller buying end-users. That way, you can get the full range of cable supplies – both general and specific. For more information visit http://www.customwireandcable.com/building-wire
