To supplement its professional salon products distribution network, L’Oréal USA’s SalonCentric Division has acquired C.B. Sullivan Co., a New Hampshire-based distributor, with sales of approximately $50 million.

C.B. Sullivan, founded in Manchester, N.H., 63 years ago, was converted to a professional salon distributor in 1980 when the founder’s son bought the business in 1980 and added L’Oréal’s Matrix brand to its mix. The deal brings L’Oréal closer to the salons and stores C.B. Sullivan services in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

The distributor employs 270 people and has 29 professional sales consultants and 31 professional stores. Over the past three years, L’Oréal’s Professional Products Division has made acquiring distributors a strategic focus to building better relationships with stylists and salons, and also to better control diversion.

Since that time, the company made a number of strategic acquisitions, including Beauty Alliance, headquartered in Clearwater, FL; Maly’s West in Valencia, CA; Columbia Beauty Supply in Charlotte, NC; Idaho Beauty & Barber in Boise, ID; Marshall Salon Services in Dixon, IL and Maly’s Midwest in Grand Rapids, MI.