Affiliated Distributors launches SupplyFORCE.com
By Industrial Distribution Staff -- Industrial Distribution, 1/1/2000
KING OF PRUSSIA, PA.--In the latest major move regarding electronic commerce in distribution, Affiliated Distributors has announced the formation of a new company called supplyFORCE.com. Just two weeks after introducing the venture, AD had signed up 240 distributors of electrical, industrial and PVF supplies representing over $14 billion in North American sales.SupplyFORCE.com's e-business portal is expected to go live late in the first quarter of this year. SupplyFORCE.com has also acquired AD's national accounts program, as well as A-D Northeast, a regional provider of integrated supply solutions. The two acquisitions provide the company with about $400 million in initial sales volume.
Bill Weisberg, chairman and CEO of Affiliated Distributors, will lead the new online initiative. He said that the initial reaction has been outstanding, and would not rule out an IPO in the future.
"The response from the formal launch exceeded expectations," said Weisberg. "We had 243 distributor companies commit and sign 10-year agreements in less than a month, which is a powerful message. [An IPO] is certainly one of the avenues that we're approaching in the drive to continue to grow, but no decision has been made at this time."
One of those distributors to sign on is Martin Supply Co. "They have the size, they'll be able to put business into it immediately, and they have the financial backing," said James Teat, vice president of operations and marketing for Martin Supply Co. "Picking which horse you want to wager on this early in the race is pretty hard to do. But if I was going to bet on a startup, that would be the one I'd bet on."
In addition to Weisberg, Steve Cosgrove, former president of Thrall Distribution and director of national accounts and business development for W.W. Grainger, has been named chief operating officer; John Ludlam, A-D Northeast's president and key architect of the company's integrated supply technology, will serve as vice president of operations. Diane Mirvis will function as supplyFORCE.com's chief technology officer.
According to Weisberg, the electronic initiative will act as the e-business center point for regional and local distributors in servicing large national accounts and will allow them to participate in Internet commerce without incurring the major costs of starting an e-commerce system on their own.
"We have over $40 million of existing customers with contracts on national agreements and local integrated supply agreements, and a significant amount of that is already e-commerce, and it continues to transition," said Weisberg. "Our distribution network has $14 billion of sales, and a significant portion of their customers are looking to buy online.
"The challenge and opportunity for a distributor is that it's expensive to put an e-commerce solution in place, so there are very significant incentives to transition customers to supplyFORCE.com. to meet customer requirements."
The supplyFORCE.com Web site will eventually offer customers access to over two million products in addition to value-added services. Upon completion, the e-business portal will allow businesses, from the self-employed to Fortune 500 companies, to take advantage of the streamlined purchasing power of the widest variety of products in the market and will reduce the cost and delivery time of their spot buys.
Talkback
Related Content
Related Content
Sponsored Links
View All Blogs
