Kreisers, Inc., MMS, and Seneca Medical announced a merger agreement today to form Concordance Healthcare Solutions, LLC, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2016.

The combined company will have about 1,000 employees, 19 distribution centers and $1.1 billion in annual sales. MMS's executive vice president, Tom Harris, and Seneca's CEO, Roger Benz, will be co-presidents of Concordance Healthcare Solutions.

Kreisers is a medical and surgical equipment and supplies company based in South Dakota and is a major regional distributor across the upper Midwest, and Seneca Medical is an independent, private medical surgical supply company with distribution centers in Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia. MMS offers products, equipment and supply chain services to health care providers, and is among the largest independent regional health care distributors in the U.S.

"By mirroring the change in our industry, the combined company will now be better positioned to compete more effectively and profitably in the evolving health care market," Tom Harris, executive vice president of MMS, said in a statement. "We will be able to offer a larger array of services and products, be more competitive in the marketplace and have a much larger national presence."

Benz made it clear that it is not an acquisition, but instead a merger that brings together "three equally dedicated independent distributors, possessing like cultures and business approaches."

"This is not a transaction that results in a loser being cannibalized and incorporated into a winner," he added. "It is about furthering the development of a customer-focused, agile, near national, independent distributor the likes of which the health care industry has not enjoyed for decades."

The companies chose the name "Concordance" for their joint company because it means "in agreement".

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