AD’s Decorative Brands Division hosted a record-breaking annual meeting Nov. 12-14, 2019, with an attendance increase of 40% over the prior year. This was one of several major gatherings AD hosts for members and supplier partners in the U.S., Mexico and Canada, seen as pinnacle events for networking, relationship building and recognizing excellence, AD noted.

The theme of the year’s meetings was “All In,” described as absolute commitment, pushing the status quo, getting fully involved and having an unwavering drive with customers, supplier partners and fellow members.

At the Miami, Florida meeting, Decorative Brands Division leadership spoke to attendees highlighting strategic opportunities to partner with AD to finish the remainder of the year strong. While at divisional business meetings, members and supplier partners were inspired and challenged to use their relationship with AD to further strengthen their partnerships as well as their overall business through AD Marketing and eCommerce Solutions.

“This year, we welcomed six new member companies and 17 new supplier partners across the U.S. and Canada to the AD community and this contributed to AD Decorative Brands Division’s extremely positive results thus far in 2019,” Linda Hoff, AD’s Decorative Brands division director, said. “AD’s multi-divisional model allows new growing divisions to leverage the strength of the collective and invest in programs that help our members to not only stay relevant but also to thrive while operating long-term sustainable businesses.”

The growth AD Decorative Brands has experienced in 2019 is representative of the success AD has seen collectively, welcoming more than 240 new members across its 12 divisions to date.

At this year’s meeting, PHCP Business Unit President Jeffrey Beall took the opportunity to share key details on what’s tracking as a record-breaking AD year, illustrating just how “All In” AD is for its members and supplier partners. Highlights included:

• A projected $46 billion in member sales this year;

• Year-to-date 9% increase in total member purchases in the group; and

• Expected purchases from AD supplier partners are on track to grow by $1.2 billion.

For the first time, the Decorative Brands division honored excellence of members and supplier partners. Awards were presented to:

• 2019 Member of the Year, Decorative Brands: Crawford Supply Co.

• 2019 Supplier of the Year, Decorative Brands: Elkay Manufacturing Co.

Beall added: “We are pleased that the feedback we have received thus far on the meeting is overwhelmingly positive. We look to our meeting attendees to help us raise the bar year over year on our meetings. The individual business meetings, strategic networking engagements and product show booth sessions are the best time to communicate and reinforce our enriched value proposition. We understand our hardworking members and supplier partners take time out of their busy lives to attend our meetings, so our time together needs to be time very well spent. The agenda is jam-packed with content they can take back home and put to good use straight away.”