The buying groups HES and PRO Group have entered into a comprehensive long term agreement under the umbrella organization ProSource.
Under this strengthened agreement, David Workman has assumed the newly created role of president and CEO of ProSource in conjunction with his current responsibilities as president and COO of PRO Group.
A newly formed six-member Steering Committee has been created with equal representation from the respective boards of both PRO Group and HES. The objective of this Committee is to build the future direction of ProSource and to assist in the prioritization of the group’s initiatives. The charter members of this committee include George Manlove, Chariman of Vann’s, Murray Huppin, president of Huppin’s/OneCall, Walt Stinson, president of ListenUp, David Pidgeon, CEO of Starpower, Bob Dodge, CEO of Talk of the Town, and Andy Kersey, CEO of Hamlin & Kersey.
ProSource will also establish two additional committees, a Custom/Control Committee and a Marketing Committee to further address the changing needs of the membership within both organizations.
Dave Workman commented: “Jim Ristow and I have had a vision for our two organizations stretching back for almost three years. We each have the privilege of managing two very successful buying organizations, but with the myriad of changes that continue to occur in the CE industry, we knew that we needed to change as well. While PRO and HES will continue to function independently from an operations standpoint to cater to the specific needs of each organization’s member base, this agreement finally allows us the opportunity to harness the potential of our combined volume and work even more closely with our core partners. We believe that the strength of our buying power, combined with the strategic infrastructure of Expert Warehouse will deliver growth opportunities unrivaled by any other buying group. I am extremely excited to work even more closely with Jim Ristow, Dean Sottile, Andy Orozco and the rest of the ProSource team as we proactively address the needs of our membership and vendor partners.”
Jim Ristow, executive vice president of HES added, “We believe that the challenges being faced by big box retailers today present the industry with vibrant growth opportunities in specialty CE and integration. This final step in the ProSource merger allows us to combine resources and unify our focus to advance the position of our group members and vendor partners.”
