Distributor alliance IBC has formed a partnership with Safety Marketing Group, opening the door for both organizations to sell multiple product lines to existing and prospective customers.

The alliance, which was announced last month, creates a new division within IBC, called SafetySupplyPlus. IBC's existing divisions include IndustrialSupplyPlus, BearingSupplyPlus, and ElectricalSupplyPlus.

SMG will be the engine behind SafetySupplyPlus.

Founded in 1989, SMG is headquartered in Brooksville, Fla., and made up of more than 50 independently owned safety supply distributors with more than 140 locations throughout North America. SMG distributors sell personal protective equipment, fall protection systems, air monitoring equipment, flammable storage and containment products, ergonomic items, and signs and markings.

IBC markets its industrial, bearing and electrical distributors on regional, national and minority contracts, while SMG pursues the safety component of customer contracts. The union of the two companies will allow both organizations to increase their product offering to customers.

"SMG is excited at the opportunity to partner with IBC on local, regional and national contracts," said Mike Smeaton, SMG president, in a prepared statement. "We see them and their members as specialists in the other commodity areas, and look forward to representing the full safety category.

"By sharing market intelligence and working on these opportunities together, we will increase the amount of business we bring to our members. We also see an opportunity to provide the customer greater cost savings through vendor reduction and improved customer service."

"Many of IBC's members carry some level of safety products, but when a national agreement requires safety specialists, we can now check the 'safety box' on all RFPs," added Dan Burnham, executive vice president of IBC, in the same written statement. "The success and direction of IBC the last two years has been to provide the end user customer access to our leading group of distributors. With the addition of SMG and their members, we will now be able to offer those customers an additional product line, employee training and, ultimately, standardization through channel optimization."

IBC is based in Hartford, Conn. Its distributor members have more than 500 locations throughout North America and annual sales of more than $2.5 billion.