Azione Unlimited, the new buying group founded by former...

Azione Unlimited, the new buying group founded by former HTSA executive director Richard Glikes, will announce 11 charter members Jan. 2, Glikes told Consumer Electronics Daily Wednesday. The 11 founding members will include manufacturer and dealer members, Glikes said. Azione is now accepting dealer applications from a database of 700 and is targeting custom retailers with annual sales volume of $1.5 million-$30 million, Glikes said. When asked how the group can adequately address the needs of such a divergent mix of dealers, Glikes said sales volume varies largely by region. “You can’t get a $5 million dealer in Iowa or Nebraska,” he said, but one with a half million in sales volume can benefit from the group, he said. The biggest weakness of custom retailers is “they're terrible marketers,” Glikes said. “They sit in foxholes and wait for the business to come to them.” Azione will give them a “broader silhouette that’s critical to their growing business,” he said. Dues for Azione will be $4,000 a year, compared with $895 a quarter for HES and SEN, and $7,500 a year for HTSA, Glikes said. Azione will have 40 percent fewer vendors than HTSA, he told us, but he wouldn’t say whether the group will exclude or add categories handled by existing buying groups catering to the custom by the market.