The ongoing consolidation in the industrial distribution sector continued during the last days of 2006 and into the New Year, with players large and small making moves to expand their organizations through acquisitions.

And once again, British plumbing and HVAC giant Wolseley plc led the charge,

buying 10 more companies in North America and Europe in moves that took its total spend on acquisitions in fiscal 2006 to nearly $635 million: Wolseley Canada bought Hudson Plumbing Supplies Ltd.; Ferguson Enterprises, Wolseley's American plumbing distribution division, bought Onda-Lay Pipe & Rental Inc., a distributor of polyethylene and fiberglass pipe products and services, and appliance dealer Page's Appliances; Stock Building Supply, Wolseley's American building materials distribution business, bought Tonto Verde Construction Inc. and Precision Forest Products LLC; Wolseley's French building materials distributor PBM bought Atout K-RO and Etablissements Pochon Felix. Wolseley also bought Cal-Steam Supply Inc., a San Francisco-based plumbing products distributor; Alabama-based Guntersville Fabrication & Sprinkler Co. Inc. and Guntersville Pipe and Supply, a distributor and fabricator of fire protection systems; in Britain, Wolseley acquired R.J. Hosking Building Supplies Ltd.; and in the Netherlands it bought Kopex Groothandel.

In another of the period's biggest moves, diversified manufacturer Eaton Corp. agreed to pay $695 million for aerospace company Argo-Tech Corp. Cleveland-based Eaton said the deal, expected to close during the first quarter this year, strengthens its aerospace operations.

U.S. Electrical Services LLC of Exton, Pa., which like Wolseley has been active on the M&A front, continued the trend with its purchase of Hampden/Zimmerman Electric Supply Co., a Massachusetts-based electrical distributor.

And Illinois Tool Works Inc., another frequent name in M&A headlines, made a pair of moves designed to focus on its core business. ITW agreed to buy Franklynn Industries Inc., a mold release and coatings manufacturer based in Loveland, Ohio, even as it explored the sale of its auto and tire-testing equipment manufacturing business, ITW Ride Quality Products, to private equity firm American Industrial Partners.

AIP and its brethren have demonstrated their appetite for distribution companies, which have become popular targets on Wall Street. In one example, New York City-based Apollo paid the Carlyle Group $1.8 billion last year for Milwaukee-based Rexnord, an industrial components manufacturer.

Apollo, Carlyle and nine other private equity firms recently banded together to form a trade association to conduct research and lobby on behalf of the private equity industry, which fueled a welter of merger and acquisition activity in 2006, raising more than $300 billion during the year from investors.

Here are some of the other acquisitions made during the waning days of 2006 and the first part of this year:

• Kennametal Inc. agreed to buy Federal Signal Corp.'s cutting tools business for roughly $67 million.

• Cooper Industries Ltd. bought WPI Interconnect Products, a Salem, N.J.-based manufacturer of custom connectors and cable assemblies, for roughly $74.5 million.

• Praxair Distribution acquired the Canadian propane tank-exchange business Blue Rhino, a Ferrellgas Partners LP company.

• Brady Corp. acquired wire-identification manufacturer Modernotecnica SpA of Milan, Italy, which makes wire markers, electrical signage, name plates and face plates, and cable management accessories.

• Machining solutions provider Ellison Technologies Inc. bought Jackson Machinery Co. of Cleveland.

• Hajoca Corp., a Philadelphia-based plumbing and HVAC wholesaler, bought Richards Plumbing, Heating & Industrial Supplies of Grand Rapids, Mich.

• Berkshire Hathaway Inc. bought passives and connector distributor TTI, including TTI's catalog distributor subsidiary, Mouser Electronics.

• Duncan Industrial Solutions agreed to sell its air equipment business to Air Systems and Pump Solutions of Oklahoma, LLC.

• The Timken Co. sold its automotive steering business to DriveSol Worldwide.

• Stanley Works purchased HSM Electronic Protection Services Inc. for $545 million in cash.