Imperial Dade FAQ: Mergers, Products, and What Procurement Managers Actually Need to Know

I've managed our facility supplies budget ($142,000 annually) for six years now, negotiated with 15+ distributors, and tracked every invoice in our procurement system. When Imperial Dade came up as a potential vendor last year, I had questions. Lots of them. Here's what I actually needed to know—and what you probably do too.

What exactly is Imperial Dade, and what do they sell?

Imperial Dade is a national distributor of packaging supplies, janitorial products, food service disposables, paper products, and facility maintenance supplies. They're not a manufacturer—they're a distributor, which matters when you're negotiating pricing (more on that later).

Their catalog covers everything from toilet paper and trash liners to food packaging and shipping supplies. For our 180-person manufacturing facility, we use them primarily for janitorial supplies and break room disposables. The one-stop-shop angle is real—I consolidated three vendors into one, which cut my PO processing time by maybe 40%.

That said, "one-stop" doesn't mean "only stop." I still keep a backup vendor for specialty items (don't put all your eggs in one basket, etc.).

What's the deal with the BradyPlus Imperial Dade merger?

This one confused me initially. Imperial Dade has grown through acquisitions—it's basically their business model. The BradyPlus situation is part of that pattern. If you were a BradyPlus customer, your account likely transitioned to Imperial Dade's systems.

Here's what I learned when one of our regional facilities went through a similar acquisition transition with a different Imperial Dade predecessor company: pricing didn't change immediately, but within 6-8 months, we saw adjustments. Not necessarily worse—just different. Some items went up 8-12%, others actually dropped.

My advice? If you're caught in a merger transition, get your current pricing in writing before the switch completes. I almost didn't, and the two weeks of back-and-forth to verify our contracted rates were stressful. Even after getting confirmation, I kept second-guessing whether everything transferred correctly. Didn't relax until our first three invoices matched expectations.

How does their national distribution network actually work?

Imperial Dade has locations across the country—places like Franklin MA, Jersey City, Miami, New Jersey, and Loma Linda CA show up in their network. This matters for lead times.

In my experience (tracking 200+ orders over three years), delivery times from the nearest distribution center run 2-4 business days for standard items. But here's the thing nobody tells you: "nearest" doesn't always mean "ships from there." Some specialty items ship from specific regional hubs regardless of your location.

I learned this the hard way when I needed food service containers urgently. Assumed they'd come from our usual DC, which is 90 miles away. Nope—shipped from 400 miles out. Added two days. Now I ask specifically: "Where does THIS item ship from?" (annoying, but saves headaches).

Is there a gen AI catalog management software I should know about?

I've seen this question pop up, and honestly, I'm not 100% sure what specific platform people are asking about. The distributor space is starting to adopt AI-powered catalog tools for things like demand forecasting and inventory optimization—but whether Imperial Dade uses something specific or if this is a general industry question, I can't confirm.

What I can tell you: their online ordering portal is... functional. Not fancy. Gets the job done. If you're hoping for some AI-powered "predict what I need before I need it" magic, temper expectations. As of January 2025, most B2B distributor portals are still pretty basic compared to consumer e-commerce.

The efficiency gains I've gotten came from old-fashioned methods—setting up recurring orders for predictable items, maintaining a reorder spreadsheet with par levels, and (this is key) building a relationship with an actual human rep who knows our account. Technology helps, but it doesn't replace knowing who to call when something goes sideways.

Random question: what about Teflon tape for plumbing—do they carry that?

Yes, facility maintenance supplies include plumbing basics. Teflon tape (technically PTFE thread seal tape) is standard inventory at most facility supply distributors including Imperial Dade.

Quick tip since it came up: when using Teflon tape, wrap it clockwise around the male threads (when looking at the end of the fitting). 3-5 wraps for most applications. Sounds basic, but I've seen maintenance staff wrap it backward and wonder why connections still leak. The tape should tighten as you screw the fitting in, not unwind.

For what it's worth, we buy our plumbing supplies elsewhere—a local industrial supply house with faster turnaround for emergency repairs. The $0.30 per roll I might save from Imperial Dade isn't worth a two-day wait when a toilet's flooding. (To be fair, that's my specific situation with a 24/7 facility. YMMV.)

What about pricing—is Imperial Dade competitive?

Loaded question. Short answer: depends on your volume and what you're buying.

When I audited our 2023 spending, I found Imperial Dade was within 5% of competitors on high-volume commodity items (trash liners, paper towels, basic cleaning chemicals). On specialty items—lower volume, specific brands—they were sometimes 15-20% higher.

The upside was consolidation savings: one invoice to process, one delivery to receive, one rep to negotiate with. The risk was overpaying on certain line items. I kept asking myself: is the convenience worth potentially $3,000-4,000 annually in slightly higher unit costs?

My conclusion (and this took three months of spreadsheet analysis): yes, for us—but only because I negotiated category-specific pricing tiers. The initial quote they sent was, honestly, not competitive. I came back with competitor quotes for our top 20 SKUs. They matched or beat 17 of them. The other three, I still buy elsewhere.

So glad I pushed back on that first quote. Almost accepted it to save time, which would've cost us roughly $6,200 annually in overpayment. Switching to negotiated rates (plus the vendor consolidation efficiency) saved us $8,400 over the first year—about 17% of our total facility supplies budget.

Any gotchas or hidden costs I should watch for?

A few things I've learned:

Minimum order thresholds: They exist. Depending on your location and account setup, you might need to hit $150-300 per order to avoid delivery surcharges. Not unusual for distributors, but worth confirming upfront.

Fuel surcharges: These fluctuate. In Q2 2024, when diesel spiked, our invoices included 4-6% fuel surcharges on top of quoted prices. Annoying but standard across the industry (Source: industry-wide practice; verify current surcharge rates with your rep).

Return policies: Tighter than you'd expect. Non-defective returns often require approval and may incur restocking fees. Learned this when we over-ordered disposable gloves by 20 cases (my fault—misread the requisition). Cost us $180 in restocking fees and return shipping.

The surprise wasn't the restocking fee itself. It was that "approved returns" meant a 3-week process. By the time we got credit, I'd already reordered because we ran low. Now I triple-check quantities before approving orders. Built a little calculator specifically to prevent that mistake again.

Bottom line: would I recommend them?

For mid-size facilities (roughly 100-500 employees) buying a mix of janitorial, packaging, and food service supplies—yeah, they're worth evaluating. The national footprint means consistency if you have multiple locations. The product breadth is genuinely useful for consolidation.

But don't just sign up and accept default pricing. Get competitive quotes. Ask about volume tiers. Clarify shipping origins for your critical items. And keep at least one backup vendor relationship warm.

I've been reasonably happy with them for three years now. Not perfect—no distributor is—but reliable enough that I'm not actively shopping for alternatives. In procurement, that's probably as close to an endorsement as you'll get from me.

Pricing and policies mentioned are based on my experience through January 2025. Verify current terms directly—things change.