Selected IMARK Distributors Enter National Accounts Arena

Ever since Mayer Electric left AD and joined IMARK it has been rumored that IMARK, and its distributors, were going to enter into the national account arena and essentially compete with national chains as well as consortium such as SupplyForce and the Vantage Group.

Many know that IMARK represents approximately 900 distributors in the electrical industry, however, many are small to mid-sized distributors and a significant percentage of them serve the residential and commercial markets.  National accounts to many of them is not an area of interest as they are focused on their local communities.

But for some national accounts, be it industrial, commercial or lighting initiatives, represents an opportunity and/or a defensive move to retain business.

Fourteen of these distributors have banded together to form IM Supply Group, www.imsupplygroup.com (as of my last visit the site wasn’t active, but this is the future url). Click here to learn a little about the group.  The organization is being managed / run by Jared Hoover (ex Cree and GE Lighting.)

The companies are Crescent Electric, Elliott Electric, Mayer Electric, Summit Electric, Alameda Electrical, Dakota Supply Group, The Hite Company, Madison Electric (MI), Springfield Electric, Standard Electric Company (MI), Richards Electric, United Electric, USESI, Walters Wholesale, and Womack Electric.

Some of these companies are more contractor-oriented than industrially-oriented (and with a lighting veteran running the business perhaps the group will offer services to national contractors, national / regional lighting opportunities as well as industrial opportunities), that Crescent is also a member of Vantage.

While the new organization is in 48 states, perhaps the model is built to allow for additional distributors to participate based upon location needs, similar to how the Vantage model was originally conceived.

Time will tell on the effectiveness, however, the key is that these distributors now have their own national account group.