A Letter From NRHA’s President and CEO

To our valued partners and friends throughout the channel:

As an industry, we are facing truly unprecedented times as we battle the COVID-19 virus. Despite this uncertainty, however, we have no doubt that we will emerge from this crisis stronger, more confident and with greater resolve than ever.

We were recently talking with a retailer who shared how he felt “so privileged” to be able to continue operating during this challenge and help his community. This sentiment is also representative of how we, at NRHA, feel to be providing services to the industry during this time.

You can also rest assured that NRHA and Hardware Retailing will continue to meet the needs of all members of the independent home improvement channel throughout these times, just as we have since we were established in 1900.

Though our current situation is fluid, NRHA and Hardware Retailing will continue to make investments in supporting this community, including taking the following immediate steps:

• Advocating for our members’ best interests at the state, local and federal levels and serving as a unified voice for the independent home improvement retail channel.
• Delivering relevant news and business advice across our website, social media, newsletters and print magazine. You can access our COVID-19 resource by clicking here.
• Converting Hardware Retailing’s monday enewsletter to serve as a weekly update of all of the new resources and news surrounding this crisis.
• Broadcast weekly podcasts to get information out to the entire channel, including information from retailers, distributors and manufacturers.
• Make our teams available to answer questions, as well as providing information and advice.
• Provide our complete suite of online training resources FREE to retailers for the next two months (email us nrha@nrha.org or go to www.nrha.org/membership).
• Offer special opportunities for the vendors, manufacturers and service providers to connect with the retailers in this channel.
• Lastly, because we are focusing our energies on providing information to the industry in the most immediate fashion we have decided to combine the June and July issues of Hardware Retailing’s print magazine and funnel more information through our digital resources during this time.

In addition to these steps, over the next few weeks we will be announcing a series of no-cost educational webinars, podcasts and other informative offerings that we will be delivering to address the challenges we face today.

And, while each of us has a few challenges that are unique to our own businesses, remember, we are all in this together.

Sincerely,

Bob Cutter

President and CEO, NRHA