SupplyFORCE to focus on national account contracts

Jan. 1, 2003
SupplyFORCE will concentrate on its core national account business and no longer attempt to attract small electrical contractors and other small businesses,

SupplyFORCE will concentrate on its core national account business and no longer attempt to attract small electrical contractors and other small businesses, according to the company.

As part of the shift in focus, the King of Prussia, Pa.-based supplyFORCE eliminated 20 percent of its workforce and redeployed 10 percent of its workers to support its national account contracts with large Fortune 500 companies.

Although supplyFORCE originally planned to simultaneously attack the small customer, Web-based procurement market and national account contracts, business from small companies was never supplyFORCE's primary focus.

"This customer segment (national accounts) is the one most rapidly adopting Web-based procurement," said Bill Weisberg, chairman and chief executive officer of supplyFORCE. "Industry research and our own experience confirm there has been only minor movement on the part of smaller customers toward Web-procurement. The most productive market to focus on, to the betterment of our customers, distributors, suppliers and investors, is the larger customer segment."

SupplyFORCE was founded in 1999 to provide independent distributors who were members of the Affiliated Distributors (A-D) buying/marketing group a means to service national accounts through traditional and Web-based procurement. The company services approximately 80 national-account contracts through about 345 distributors of electrical; industrial; pipe, valves and fittings (PVF); power transmission/bearings; safety; plumbing and industrial gases/welding supplies. Combined, these distributors have 4,600 stocking locations in North America more than $24 billion in annual sales.