Highlights From Boyden Moore’s Address at the Orgill Fall Buying Event

Orgill president and CEO Boyden Moore gave a presentation on Aug. 18 where he provided an update to customers and vendors on the state of the company and industry. The presentation took place as Orgill is hosting its online Fall Buying Event, which runs Aug. 16-27.

During the virtual presentation, Moore provided updates on the business, what to expect for the remainder of 2021 and projects the company is taking on heading into 2022.

Moore says Orgill has continued to focus on four key areas during the past 16 months: staying safe, building capacity, embracing agility and strengthening relationships.

“We’ve pulled together as a team and we’ve worked hard shoulder-to-shoulder with you and our
vendors facing these challenges together,” Moore says. “It’s been hard. It’s been exhausting. We’re very proud of the impact that you’ve had in our communities as essential retailers. Your commitment to your communities has driven your growth and the growth of the independent channel as a whole. We are proud to support you.”

The Challenges and Opportunities of 2021

In his presentation, Moore addressed the challenges of doing business in 2021, including a new surge of COVID-19 cases affecting global supply chain recovery efforts, price changes due to inflation and employee retention and recruitment efforts.

“I want you to know that we understand these challenges that you face, and we’re working as hard as we can to help you as you work through it,” Moore says. “Our No. 1 priority is to restore the dependability of our supply chain as quickly as we can. We invested years earning your trust through dependability and a very consistently high service level. During the past 18 months, we’ve not met our standards and we are working hard to reestablish them.”

Moore shared a bar chart that showed Orgill service levels for 2018, 2019 and 2020 compared to 2021.

Moore says Orgill should see improved numbers in the coming months, and the company will most likely return to its previous service level standards in 2022.

He also cited the success of the company’s 2021 online Spring Buying Event fill rates: Orgill delivered 96.9 percent of warehouse items and warehouse pallets ordered and 94 percent of Door Buster program items ordered.

“For this fall event, we’ve asked our vendors to focus on promotions and special buys in which they have a high degree of confidence that we’ll be able to deliver,” Moore says. “So taking advantage of the buys during the online buying event is one step you can take to improve your experience with service level from us.”

Online Buying Events

Moore announced that Orgill will host four online buying events each year. He says the company will incorporate what it has learned from past events to help develop new tools for future online buying events.

He also says the move to host both online and in-person buying events will effectively double customer access to promotional and special buys.

“We believe that further streamlining the buying with these new online tools will change the way you work the show with far less time on the mechanical aspects of creating purchase orders, and more time to invest in discovering new products and sets and talking with vendors about opportunities in their booths and networking with your peers,” he says.

Continuing to Grow

Moore says that Orgill and its customers continue to see sales growth at a faster rate than the rest of the industry. He also names the high demand for home improvement products as a reason why Orgill’s service level has not recovered more quickly.

In the first half of 2021, Orgill’s sales were up 21 percent, compared to 18.3 percent for the industry, according to Moore, who cited a monthly industry retail sales report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

“Even though we were optimistic when we budgeted sales growth of 7 percent for this year, we are actually projecting almost double that for 2021 now,” he says. “While we’re pleased with the growth in sales that we’re seeing, we also understand that the real measure of our success is our fill rate and how well we are executing our mission ‘to help our customers be successful.’”

Orgill Projects in the Works

Moore provided updates on current and future Orgill projects as part of the company’s efforts to build capacity and better serve its customers.

• In June, Orgill opened its new, 780,000-square-foot, distribution center in Rome, New York. The company is transitioning its northeast routes to that distribution center, which will help to improve capacity at other distribution centers.
• The company is completing a 430,000-square-foot addition to its Hurricane, Utah, distribution center, which should be completed by the first quarter of 2022.
• Orgill continues to invest in technology to support customer growth and improve its service levels. Marc Hamer, Orgill’s chief information and technology officer, added 40 new employees to the technology team and the team has prioritized more than 180 projects that will help with efficiency and service across the company.

The next in-person Orgill dealer market is scheduled for Feb. 24-26 in Orlando. Moore says this will be the company’s biggest show yet and a celebration of the organization’s 175 years serving customers.

“You can count on us to work hard on your behalf to help you be successful,” Moore says. “On behalf of our over 400 strong sales support team and our 5,800 employees, thanks for your business, partnership and friendship. We hope to see you in Orlando next year and thank you in person.”

About Orgill

Orgill, the industry’s fastest-growing hardlines distributor, was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Collierville, Tennessee. Orgill serves more than 11,000 retail hardware stores, home centers, professional lumber dealers and farm stores throughout the U.S. and Canada, and in over 50 countries around the world. More information can be found here.