TriMega Announces Strategic Alliance with S.P. Richards

TriMega announced today that it has entered into a strategic sourcing alliance with one of North America's leading business products wholesalers, S.P. Richards Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Genuine Parts Company (GPC:NYSE) headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. This groundbreaking new alliance has been crafted to leverage the multi-billion dollars in combined purchasing volume of TriMega and S.P. Richards. The collaborative approach to capturing buy-side synergies in this alliance will yield tangible benefits for TriMega independent dealer members, S.P. Richards, and participating manufacturers.

“The pressure to minimize the cost-of-goods gap between independent dealers and the big boxes has never been more critical,” said Charlie Cleary, President of TriMega. “While the current climate has allowed the industry leader to make further gains, this paradigm changing relationship that aligns wholesaler and buying group partners will enable us to make significant strides in closing that gap,” he commented. “We’re honored to have S.P. Richards as our ally in this effort. Over the years they have proven to be a forward thinking, industry innovator with unwavering support of independent dealers,” he concluded.

“The timing is certainly right for an alliance of this type,” said Wayne Beacham, S.P. Richards, Chairman & CEO. “When you get to know our two organizations, we both have a similar strategic vision that recognizes the importance of the independent dealer channel. This new partnership between TriMega & S.P. Richards speaks to the core of this vision and will go a long way in keeping dealers competitive, while positioning them for growth,” he remarked. “We have been impressed with TriMega’s clear and consistent vision for their membership, the strength of their board and executive team and their track record of success in the industry. The entire executive team at S.P. Richards is very excited to partner with TriMega on this opportunity,” Beacham concluded.

This new alliance will join TriMega and S.P. Richards in a variety of merchandising, marketing and purchasing efforts. A new proprietary brand under the Business Source™ name will be launched and made exclusively available to independent dealers. Joint reviews with suppliers for 2010 calendar year programs, joint merchandising of catalogs and a new alignment of preferred suppliers will be initiated immediately. In addition, TriMega and S.P. Richards will now be working together in other areas such as e-content and mutual “first-in-search” strategies, point-of-sale (POS) data sharing and increased collaboration on S.P. Richards’ state-of-the-art profit enhancing software for independent dealers, MyAnalyst™.

“Improving program value and cost of goods for TriMega members has long been the guiding objective of our purchasing philosophy and the basis of our negotiation efforts,” said Greg Fish, TriMega’s Executive Vice President of Purchasing. “This partnership will generate program value enhancements that simply could not be achieved by either one of us alone,” he commented. “The result of this alliance will be gains that have real impact for independent dealers. Manufacturers also stand to realize significant benefits in economies of scale, supply chain efficiencies, process improvements, print and web-based marketing and publications and improved POS insights,” he commented.

“Through this alliance, participating manufacturers will now have an enhanced and more effective way to introduce new products to the marketplace,” Greg concluded. “We are extremely excited about the opportunities that this expanded relationship will create,” said Rick Toppin, Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing for S.P. Richards. “We’re not just leveraging dollars in this alliance. We’ll be leveraging the ideas, the passion and the wealth of industry experience that exists within our two organizations,” he continued. “It is this kind of collaborative mindset and fresh thinking that will help drive innovation. Working together in this new alliance, the possibilities are endless,” he added.

Additional details regarding this TriMega and S.P. Richards Company strategic sourcing alliance will be revealed in the months to come.

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