Affiliated Distributors, industrial and construction products buying and marketing group in North America, is expanding into the Latin American market.
“AD is now open for business in Latin America and we look forward to working with and sharing best practices with the best independent distributors and manufacturers in Mexico, Brazil and Colombia,” said Bill Weisberg, chairman and CEO of Affiliated Distributors. “The creation of AD 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.”
Leading the Latin American expansion is Carlos Garcia Ramirez, AD’s new managing director and vice president of Latin America. He comes to AD with three decades of experience in the electrical industry. Before joining AD, he served as Panduit’s managing director of Latin America, Caribbean, Europe and the Middle East. He will continue to live in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Affiliated Distributors has a combined $28 billion in member sales.
“In Latin America we are partnering with existing members, with supplyFORCE and with our globally focused supplier partners to support their growth strategies,” Weisberg said.
Strategic recruitment in Mexico, Brazil and Colombia will be initial countries of focus for AD. Over the next few years the group will expand to additional countries in Central and South America and other markets around the globe.