United Cooperatives Alliance of the Americas (UCAA), the cooperative that the IMARK electrical buying/marketing group, Bowie, Md., formed with the Embassy Group in the plumbing and HVAC trades, has expanded into several other trades. Joining UCAA are the Forte Buying Group for independent decorative plumbing and hardware distributors and the Sphere 1 buying/marketing group for independent tool and fastener distributors. Forte was established in 2002 and now has 250 members in the United States and Canada, while Sphere 1 was established in 1999 and is a cooperative of 132 independent tool and fastener distributors with 450 locations.
According to information on its website, UCAA was founded by IMARK and the Elgin, Ill.-based Embassy as a federation of member-owned cooperatives “to preserve and protect the cooperative model and to share best practices in an effort to improve returns, reduce cost and enhance business practices for its members.”
IMARK’s 900 members represent more than $11 billion in combined sales and operate more than 2,000 branches. Eighty of its members are ranked in Electrical Wholesaling’s listing of the 200 largest electrical distributors. More than 100 electrical manufacturers work with IMARK distributors.
In other news at IMARK, the group recently joined IMELCO, an international consortium of 12 buying/marketing groups from Europe and Australia that in 2011 had combined electrical sales of $8.4 billion.