April 9, 2014 – North American industrial and construction products buying and marketing group Affiliated Distributors (AD) says it is now open for business in Latin America.

“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,” noted Bill Weisberg, AD’s chair and CEO.

Leading the Latin American expansion is Carlos Garcia Ramirez, AD’s new managing director and vice-president of Latin America. Carlos is formerly Panduit’s managing director of Latin America, Caribbean, Europe and the Middle East.

Weisberg explained that “just as we’ve seen many of the manufacturers in this industry becoming global so, too, are an increasing number of our members’ customers and competitors. Left unaddressed, this could, over time, put AD members and suppliers at a competitive disadvantage. That’s why we’ve launched AD Latin America”.

“Creating a group in Latin America that supports independent distribution will be good for distributors and suppliers in that region, the same way Affiliated Distributors has strengthened market share for member distributors and supplier partners in the U.S. and Canada,” said Tim MacDonald, president and CEO of Ideal Supply Co. Ltd. (Listowel, Ont.), and AD board member.

Strategic recruitment in Mexico, Brazil and Colombia will be initial countries of focus says AD. Over the next few years, the group will expand to additional countries in Central and South America, as well as other “strategic markets” around the globe.