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Distributor buying/marketing giant Affiliated Distributors (AD), Wayne, Pa., announced that it has set up shop and hired a leader to develop a presence in the Latin American markets, beginning with Mexico, Colombia and Brazil.
The move into Latin America “is driven by our sense of responsibility to our existing Members and Supplier Partners and consistent with AD’s mission to help strong Independents work together in order to counter the geographic scale advantage of national and international chains,” AD Chairman and CEO Bill Weisberg said in a release.
The Latin American operation will be run by Carlos Garcia Ramirez as managing director and vice president of Latin America. Ramirez brings experience as managing director in Latin America, Caribbean, Europe and the Middle East over 24 years with Panduit Corp. He’ll be based in Guadalajara, Mexico.
“We believe that AD’s culture of diversity and respect for local market differences will be very well received in Latin America. AD doesn’t have just one way of doing things. We work in seven industries and two countries and we customize our approach in each market based on its unique dynamics,” Ramirez said in the release.
Strategic recruitment in Mexico, Brazil and Colombia will be the initial focus for AD, the release said. Over the next few years the group will expand to additional countries in Central and South America “and other strategic markets around the globe.”
AD’s core presence is in the U.S. and Canada now, where it has divisions devoted to seven vertical markets – electrical, industrial, HVAC, PVF, plumbing, dry wall and clean energy. Those groups together produced aggregated revenues (not all through AD suppliers) of $28 billion in 2013.