A new PBE distributor organization, Refinish Distributors Alliance (RDA), has formed to better serve its collision repair customers. RDA consists of 10 regional PBE distributors with combined sales of $350 million.
“The changing dynamics in the collision industry are driving a need for more collaboration between collision centers, manufacturers of refinish materials and repair equipment, and finally the regional distributors that provide those products and services,” says RDA Vice President Todd D’Angelo of D’Angelo’s Automotive & Industrial Coatings.
Adds Peter DeLuca of Industrial Finishes & Systems, “We wanted to create a national footprint for shared ideas and resources without losing the enormous benefits of what local distribution brings to the collision shops.”
RDA is seeking to add the best distributors in all major U.S. markets, says Michael Coran, president and owner of J&R Auto Body Supply in Framingham, Mass. “We want to maintain our independence yet drive more value to repairers.”
By banding together, Coran says members can easily put training and training resources together for collision customers. “We need to better serve shops and ensure that they survive and grow, because if they don’t survive, we don’t survive.”
RDA has developed national partnerships with material and equipment manufacturers to bring greater value to its collision clients. RDA says its game plan is to enable manufacturers a way to provide greater benefits to the end-user, delivered by RDA members. RDA has also introduced its own premium line of associated products under the “Impact Performance Products” brand.
RDA says it offers manufacturers large, predictable volume in order to increase their market share and to deliver greater value to the collision industry. In turn, RDA member shops are able to provide their collision center customers with cost-effective products and access to value-added programs and services on a regional basis.
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