Calling on strengths like adaptability, innovation, independence and leadership, the AD community is seeing signs of stabilization and recovery as it reports 2020 nine-month results. On a year-to-date basis, group purchases from AD suppliers were down slightly, by two percent. Net rebate distributions to members were at the same level as 2019. September’s member purchases from AD supplier partners saw a one-percent increase from the same time last year, the first increase since April.

On a same-store basis, member sales across all AD’s divisions and countries were down six percent through the first nine months of this year, to $33 billion. By business unit, nine-month plumbing, heating, cooling and piping same store sales were down two percent; electrical sales were down seven percent; building materials sales were down six percent; and industrial and safety sales were down nine percent.  

AD’s CEO Bill Weisberg said, “Our community has always been passionate about growth, and while we’re powering through and surviving the toughest times we’ve faced in a long time, we are making a collective commitment to getting back to what we do best: growing, leading and innovating. I’m immensely optimistic about our ability to rebound from these challenges and come back stronger than ever.”