IMARK Group, Bowie, Md., has joined IMELCO, a 20-year-old consortium of 12 buying/marketing groups from 16 European countries and Australia that in 2011 had combined sales of an estimated $8.4 billion. IMELCO's member associations include the United Kingdom's Associated National Electrical Wholesalers, which according to its web-site (www.anew.co.uk) has 37 members with 300 branches and GEMCELL, an Australian buying/marketing group with 34 members operating 258 locations. According to information on IMELCO's web-site, Associated National Electrical Wholesalers accounts for an estimated $853 million in sales and GEMCELL's members combined do an estimated $754 million in sales.
IMARK Group has 900 members operating more than 2,000 branches. IMARK estimates that its membership includes more than 80 members on Electrical Wholesaling's Top 200 listing and that its members combined has 18% market share of the U.S. electrical distribution market.
IMARK Group is a member-owned, member-governed cooperative made up of 900 independently owned electrical distributors throughout the United States. These companies serve their customers from over 2,000 branch locations.
In a press release announcing IMARK's decision to join IMELCO, Bob Smith, IMARK president and CEO said, “Given the increasing rate of industry globalization, we are confident that our group's membership in this organization will benefit IMARK members in the years to come. We anticipate that IMARK Group's membership in IMELCO will result in enhanced member profitability and expanded networking opportunities, as well as the chance to share best practices with leading independent electrical distributors from all over the world.”