A week before his former buying group assembles for...

Azione Unlimited, the group will be based in West Chester, Pa., and plans to be up and running Jan. 2, Glikes told us. Glikes said there are no non-compete agreements with other buying groups but he wants to be sure dealers aren’t competing against each other in a given market. Some groups, he said without naming names, will put “anybody in any market.” In larger markets, there will be multiple dealers, he said, adding, “It’s a big country. The concept is not to have overlapping dealers,” he said. Although he doesn’t have a non-compete clause with HTSA, he said, “I'm not interested in any of its members.” Azione is targeting a group size of 250 “reasonably sized custom retailers with a minimum of $1.5 million in annual sales and 3 years in business. On the vendor side he’s planning to have 32 vendor members. Glikes said he has 19 vendor commitments, although he wouldn’t give names, and is eyeing 17 categories in the custom business. The group is offering prospective members “an ongoing dialogue and platforms on ideas,” a “cohesive national network,” “exceptional profits for members” and focused support between vendor and dealer members, said Glikes, who left HTSA last month over a contract dispute (CED Sept 1 p4). His potential targets are “dealers who are not in a group or who find the programs, services, and marketing of their existing group lacking in substance,” he said, claiming a potential base of “thousands of dealers looking for the right fit.” Glikes will begin an email and direct-mail campaign next month after finalizing vendor programs, he said. The group will have its first meeting in April, a second in July and a third at the end of September, he said. Down the road, “I'm already thinking phase two,” Glikes said, which he expects to be a national business “that could be sold, taken private and that’s an adjunct to what dealers do now,” he said.