This Monday the announcement was made that we will be merging Arlington Industries, Carolina Wholesale, and Digitek brands into ARLINGTON January 1, 2019. Now the questions are beginning to come our way from our customers, partners, and industry media and one of the most common questions that I’ve been heard is “why now?” A very fair question but also one that’s difficult to answer in 30 words or less.
So here’s the long story short response…
Why Now?
In many ways, this announcement was actually roughly fourteen years in the making. When Carolina Wholesale Group purchased Arlington Industries in 2004 both companies instantly began to benefit from the added vendor relationships, expanded customers, enhanced distribution network and improved internal talent. We had two companies that had differing strengths and together our organization was better positioned to compete in this very competitive industry for the next 15 years. We saw additional opportunity to improve our companies when Digitek was purchased by CWG twelve years later. Again, new vendors, product lines, and vertical market strengths were added to compliment the strengths of Arli and CW. Our internal staff has never been as dynamic, talented, and better groomed for success than it was now.
However, as the one responsible for marketing the organization (and therefore all three brands) the challenge was more complex than ever before. Which brand’s offering is positioned first this month? Which brand’s website is most worthy of inbound marketing campaigns? Which brand’s customers should qualify for rewards programs this month? At the end of the day, the only solution to best serve the customers of Arli, CW, and Digitek was a combined solution. January 1, 2019 you will see a stronger, better, more capable distributor than you have ever seen before. While we expect to be better than we ever as ARLINGTON, we are committed to maintaining the traditions and values that each brand has kept with their partners for over a combined one-hundred years of business. We have always viewed our relationship with our customers and vendors as a partnership and that will continue to be the case as we move forward together as ARLINGTON. Thank you for your continued partnership and keep asking these good questions.
