Coming off a highly successful Owners’ Meeting, IWDC in 2021 broke its all-time annual member’s spend record set in 2019.
“Our previous annual record was $278.8 million, and we broke that after our second business day in December – we should easily eclipse $300 million for full-year 2021,” stated Frank Kasnick, IWDC President & CEO. “This is a testament to the strength and resilience of the independents in our welding & gas industry and reflects the strong support from our Vendor partners.”
“We are thrilled to also announce that we raised another $13,355 at our October Owners’ Meeting bringing our 2021 total to $43,000 for Feeding America”, reported Keith Werkley, Vice President of Sales & Vendor Management. “We would like to thank our Members, Vendors and employees for their generous donations to this worthy cause.” commented Vic Wilson, Director of Marketing & Gas Programs. “In 2021 we raised enough funds to provide 430,000 meals.”
The IWDC is a cooperative, formed in 1994, which leverages the strengths of its independent welding distributor Members across North America. IWDC Member companies collectively represent over $2.9B in sales, serving a wide range of industries. The common denominator is that these industries look to them for industrial, specialty, and medical gases as well as related equipment, welding hardgoods, and consumables. End-use customers served by IWDC Members benefit from having the unparalleled expertise of a local Member distributor who has access to national-scale purchasing and marketing programs.
Feeding America is the largest hunger-relief organization in the United States. Through a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs, we provide meals to more than 40 million people each year. Feeding America also supports programs that prevent food waste and improve food security among the people we serve; educates the public about the problem of hunger; and advocates for legislation that protects people from going hungry.
