From its founding in 1974, Heilind has grown to become the industry's pre-eminent interconnect distributor, with the largest inventory of connector products in North America. The company was built on the ideals of deep inventory, flexible policies, responsive systems, knowledgeable technical support and unsurpassed customer service and today supports original equipment and contract manufacturers in all market segments of the electronics industry.

Heilind has more than 30 locations in the United States, Mainland China, Brazil, Hong Kong, Canada, Mexico and Singapore. This service network includes six distribution centers positioning Heilind's inventory within one shipping day of 90% of its customers. Heilind also maintains two fully equipped value-added centers in Hudson, New Hampshire and Hong Kong offering a complete menu of part assembly, part modification and part packaging services.

Heilind has grown through both internal expansion and acquisition. Significant acquisitions include Force Electronics (1986), Help Electronics (1991), Sage Electronics (1991), Gateway Megatech (1998), and Thompson Electronic Supplies (2011). In 2012, Heilind formed its "Mil-Aero" business unit to concentrate on the military and aerospace market segments; this business unit's first acquisition was military & aerospace distributor, Interstate Connecting Components (ICC). Heilind expanded outside of the United States first in 2000, opening facilities in Markham, Ontario (Canada) and Guadalajara, Jalisco (Mexico). The company further expanded internationally in 2012, purchasing Brazilian distributor Kotek Eletro Eletronica and later opening offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Suzhou and Dongguan, China.

Heilind formed its first important franchise partnership in 1974 with American connector manufacturer Molex. Other significant partnerships followed in 1981 with American connector manufacturer TE Connectivity (then AMP), in 1985 with Japanese relay manufacturer, Omron, in 1989 with American electronic hardware and connector manufacturer, Panduit and Japanese connector manufacturer, Hirose, in 1990 with French connector manufacturer FCI (then Berg Electronics), in 1998 with the electronics division of American manufacturer 3M and Japanese connector manufacturer JAE and in 2008 with Swiss connector manufacturer, LEMO. Today, Heilind is franchised for over 120 of the electronics industry's leading manufacturers offering products in 25 different component categories.