Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
The Ace Hardware Convention for spring 2016 was a celebration of continued financial growth for the co-op, as well as a push for new heights.
The co-op saw revenue boosts across the board for all of its business divisions, and same-store transaction sizes were up 1.9 percent in 2015, for an increase that was a 15-year high, president and CEO John Venhuizen said during the Ace show’s general session. The session started the convention, which ran March 3-5 in Las Vegas.
“You are now the owner of a $5 billion company,” Venhuizen told the crowd of Ace retailers. “Shame on us if we don’t exploit that momentum.”
New initiatives for 2016 include resetting and improving stores’ power tool accessories and hand tool offerings; building up holiday selling for November and December, which are weak sales months for most Ace retailers; and launching a new TV ad campaign featuring real stores, retailers and customers.
Evening out peaks and valleys of seasonal shopping were among the goals Venhuizen discussed for continuing to improve store profits.
“Our fourth-quarter strategy is to fall on our knees and pray for bad weather,” Venhiuzen says. That needs to change, he says.
Most Ace retailers don’t sell themselves as holiday shopping destinations, and many of them rely on winter storms and other weather events to get them through slow selling months, he says.
Ace has never invested in holiday TV ad spending during November and December, and that will change in 2016 to help stores take advantage of the hottest selling season for most retail sectors, Venhuizen says.
In line with the goals to increase holiday spending at Ace stores, retailers can offer more holiday décor options and the cords, timers and accessories to use with lights and outdoor decorative projectors.
They can also promote existing assortments of power tools, housewares, locally made goods and other products that customers would buy as gifts if they considered Ace a destination for holiday shopping, Venhuizen says.
For retailers participating in the new hand and power tool department resets, Ace offered product buyback and free reset programs, with $500 credits at the show and a $1,500 savings over 12 months for early adopters.
Another new Ace initiative is to find efficiencies for how corporate operates to serve the retailers, stepping up its game this year to improve stores’ labor scheduling and handle price-match guarantees and product rebates for them.
And to further improve seasonal sales lulls, Ace is continuing to encourage retailers to approach other companies to sell LED lighting and improve business-to-business sales. Those light bulb sales build relationships with other businesses that result in ongoing selling of other products, such as janitorial supplies, vice president of development Brian Wiborg says.
Business-to-business selling is “incredibly weather resistant,” he says. “This is repeatable business we can go and get every day.”
Retailers, such as Craig Smith of Twins Ace Hardware in Fairfax, Virginia, were using the convention to look at ways to participate in this year’s Ace initiatives. Smith was planning to expand his winter holiday product assortments. “You’ve got to be a player,” he says.
He has also begun the business-to-business LED light selling.
“I think what they said is really important,” he says. “If you can sell (businesses) light bulbs, they’ll trust you with other things.”
John Ketels, a store manager for Woodland Ace Hardware, which has 10 stores in Oregon and Washington, was also looking for Christmas products, as well as hunting for good deals on other items and merchandising ideas.
Many retailers were working through their shopping lists as usual for an Ace show, reconnecting with friends in the industry and hunting for new products.
Scot Steele, director of merchandising for 16 E&H Hardware stores in Ohio, was buying larger quantities of products than usual because his company is adding three new locations by June.
He is also keeping his eye on smart-home trends as technology improves and becomes more affordable. “I’m watching the stuff and I’m looking for bargains,” he says.
