The Wayne, Pennsylvania-based AD buying group recently reported a 13% increase in member sales across 12 divisions, totaling $20.1 billion through the first six months of the year. Purchases from AD suppliers also grew by 13% year to date.

On a same-store basis, by industry, Q2 YTD: PHCP sales were up 13%; Industrial / PT sales were up 12%; Electrical sales were up 9%; and Building materials was up 7%. By country, same-store sales in the U.S. grew 11%; Canada was up 10% and Mexico grew 12%.

“Despite unfortunate turbulence in political realms, lower taxes and a less antagonistic regulatory environment in the U.S. are contributing to member sales growth in every AD industry,” AD Chairman and CEO Bill Weisberg said. “We continue to be bullish for the rest of the year. In the first six months of 2018 we welcomed many new additions to the AD community; 28 new members, 26 new suppliers and 7 new HR and Procurement service providers.

“The success of AD eCommerce Solutions continues, now providing over 3.5 million normalized and attributed SKUs representing over 2,000 manufacturers to the 193 AD subscribing members, 67 of which are now live with digital branches using AD-produced content and another 15 will be launching digital branches later this year.”