Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM OCTOBER 2021 32 In 2012, the group became an international organization with the acquisition of Cantrex, a 50-year-old Canadian company. The merger created the largest buying group in North America, with 4,000 independent retailers and over 9,000 storefronts. Jeannine Ghaleb was named the head of Cantrex Nationwide and highlighted the partnership, stating, "Cantrex began as an entrepreneurial company serving entrepreneurs more than 50 years ago, and we feel this spirit is reflected in Nationwide's roots, too. Our goal is to support our members with the power to succeed, and we are in a great position to deliver on that promise." This new Nationwide would move into 2013, with what would be the largest PrimeTime ever, topping 5,000 attendees in Las Vegas. THE LAST REMAINING FOUNDER STEPS DOWN, AND A NEW PARTNER ARISES TO MAKE NATIONWIDE THE LARGEST BUYING GROUP IN NORTH AMERICA In 2015, the last of the original founders stepped down with the retirement of Robert Weisner and Les Kirk. But the team had been planning for that day since Guttman's passing. "We wanted to have as many of the top team in Nationwide to have a background in retail," Weisner reflects. "As we began to develop that new team, there were a lot of outstanding individuals out there, and we named Dave Bilas as our next president." A veteran industry executive, Bilas would run Nationwide Marketing Group for three years, including through its watershed year in 2017. That's when the company that had grown since its inception via regional partners and mergers combined with MEGA Group USA to form the largest buying group in North America, with over 5,000 members and some 14,000 storefronts. MEGA, a national buying group formed in Germantown, Tennessee in 2002, even had some of its roots planted in the Nationwide family. Rick Bellows, who led MEGA Group at the time of the merger, was at one time a Nationwide member himself when he was the third-generation owner of Bellows Television and Appliance, a company started in 1953 by his grandfather. "We had been involved with the Nationwide family for a long time," Bellows recalls. "My grandfather started the company, and then my dad was actively engaged and involved in the business. When we joined Nationwide in the mid-1970s, that's really when our business took off. Ed Kelly and Robert Weisner were true-blue retailers, and I learned a lot from them." THE MODERN DIGITAL AGE In 2017, Nationwide had begun to lean heavily into the digital world to assist members in the transition toward an online-first world. Late that year, Nationwide acquired leading web development and digital marketing agency Site on Time, a Georgia-based firm that had served Nationwide's membership since 2011. "The Site on Time team developed a digital platform that revolutionized most of our websites throughout the Nationwide NATIONWIDE MARKETING GROUP: 50 YEARS UNITED (continued from page 13)

• Cover