CNM

Core & Main, Inc.

A specialty distributor that supplies pipes, valves, fittings, storm drainage, water meters, and fire protection gear to municipalities, contractors, and private water companies across the U.S. and Canada, stocking hundreds of thousands of products in more than 370 branches. It was born in 2017 when private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice carved the waterworks arm out of HD Supply, which itself grew from Home Depot's brief push into wholesale. Its name nods to the "core" essentials of infrastructure and the water "mains" at the heart of what it sells.