True Value builds on 'momentum'
Houston, Texas -- Variations on a theme of "momentum" played out here at the True Value Company general session during the co-op's Spring Reunion.
Executives of the Chicago-based co-op pointed to signs of progress in 2015, technology upgrades and a number of retail success stories.
A year into the execution of True Value's over-arching, wide-ranging strategic plan, True Value president and CEO John Hartmann revealed 2015 statistics showing 66 new stores, 59 remodels and 63 conversions. Further, the Spring Reunion welcomed a "record number of stores and prospects," he said.
Many of those members were recognized during the general session for their outstanding performance and innovative approach to retailing, chief among them True Value Home Center in Mystic, Connecticut, the first overall winner of the co-op's "Best Hardware Store in Town" program, now in its ninth year. And Texas hardware icon Ike Epstein of Dr. Ike's Hardware shared the stage (and posed for a selfie) with Hartmann to close the show and celebrate a difference-making career.
Other stores were celebrated for growth -- Julie and C.C. Gibbs Of Gibbs True Value in Ashland and Grayson, Kentucky. Also Lee Bryant of Corbin, Kentucky, where a conversion to the Destination True Value format helped the store grow "more in the last three years than it has in the previous 20 years," Bryant said.
The general session served as a highlight reel and corporate update on momentum shared to attendees gathered in the theater at the George Brown Convention Center:
• The co-op will fine-tune its approach to national advertising events in 2016, said marketing chief Blake Fohl. Sales events will be reduced and simplified to 25, down from 30 events last year. The duration of the sales events will increase to 14 days, up from 7.
• Rosalee Hermans, senior VP and CIO, explained the power of technology and the significant investments and improvements to the co-op's infrastructure. The corporate mainframe and network were overhauled, along with the Members Online new-and-improved search function, an announcement that generated applause. Consumer-facing improvements to ecommerce and new apps were also moving ahead, she said.
• Abhinav Shukla, senior VP and COO, described the efficiencies found with the implementation of Voice Pick, from Lucas Systems, in the supply chain: most notably, employee onboarding efficiency increases of 50%.
"Our industry is moving forward, our co-op is moving forward event faster, and we're not going to settle for second best," said Tim Mills, senior VP of growth.
Hartmann alluded to the work that remains to be done "One full year into executing our strategy, has everything gone perfectly? Heck no," he said, adding that he couldn't be more pleased with the attitude of the co-op's members.