Over the last 22 years IRCG Partners have spoken at and worked with numerous distributor buying and marketing groups. Some of the interesting and significant past projects include:

• During 2002, IRCG conducted and published a best practices study and leadership profile of Do-It-Best Hardware for the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors
• During 2007, IRCG led a member executive discussion with the board of Johnstone Supply (www.johnstonesupply.com) on cooperatives and their role in creating competitive advantage to support their initiation of a strategic planning process.
• Between 2007 and 2008 IRCG developed and presented an executive workshop of evolving best practices for distributor cooperative organizations.  This workshop was conducted for various distributor groups including: the Evergreen Marketing Group (www.evergreen-marketing.com); the Safety Marketing Group (http://my.smgna.com); and the National Pronto Group (www.pronto-net.com).
• During 2009 IRCG conducted a series of member CEO workshops for the various divisions of Affiliated Distributors (www.mya-d.net), the largest distributor buying/marketing group in North America.  These open discussions examined large-scale changes in the distribution market and evolving best practices for distributor groups in managing their suppliers.

In our work as consultants IRCG Partners, have worked with distributors representing many manufacturers. This type of work is in the form of diagnostics and provision of our best business advice. Many of these distributors were active participants in some form of a collective purchasing or marketing organization. These organizations were for-profit or not-for-profit and variously described as distributor buying groups, distributor marketing groups, or cooperatives (co-ops).

Our firm has also provided consulting services directly to several of these distributor purchasing/marketing organizations. Some highlights include:

• In 1996 we provided industry research and facilitation that helped form the North American Steel Alliance (www.steelalliance.com), a group of steel distributors.
• During 1996 we also provided the due diligence, negotiation, and third party facilitation to combine The Independent Electrical Distributors Group (TIED) and Western Independent Electrical Distributors (WIED) into a new combined entity called I-Mark (www.imarkgroup.com). In this capacity we also provided business advisory services with respect to I-Mark governance.
• In 1999 we provided industry research and facilitation that helped form Utiliserve (www.utiliserve.com) which was a group of independent distributors serving the electrical power utility industry.  The group was purchased several years later by an investment group as a single business entity.
• In 2000 we provided industry research and facilitation that created the Vanguard Group of Allen-Bradley/Rockwell distributors to support the group’s ability to serve national accounts on a seamless basis.
• In 2006 we provided business advisory services to the Independent Medical Co-Op Inc. (www.imcoinc.com) regarding distributor membership criteria to include recruiting and termination. The changes considered were to reflect evolving forces in their competitive environment.
• In 2008 we provided industry research and facilitation to Speckoz (www.speckoz.com), a distributor marketing group in the pesticide industry.  The focus of this activity had to do with governance, potential future strategic directions and examination of late life cycle product pricing forces.
• In 2010 IRCG helped VPG resolve a legal conflict between their members and the organization over the role of private label.