True Value's Burger describes strategy

Denver -- The General Session at the 2014 True Value Fall Reunion in Denver opened with a few words of inspiration from chairman of the board Brent Burger.

"As you can see from the agenda card, we have a very full program this afternoon and I promise you that it will be one of most exciting General Sessions we have ever had," said Burger, the owner of five Campbell's True Value locations in Maine.

Given the event's unusually high attendance, Burger's words were hardly hyperbole -- the co-op was finally ready to reveal the new strategies and initiatives that the executive team had been percolating since CEO John Hartmann was brought on board last year.

In the presentations that followed, True Value executives would present a vision for the co-op, including substantial boost in national advertising.

Burger said the strategy was based on feedback from vendors, associates, consumers and retailers. These sentiments were echoed in the video Burger played before he turned the mic over to Hartmann, which featured retailers discussing their thoughts about the role True Value has played in their lives, and also their thoughts about the co-op's future.

"While we recognize and hold close all of the worthy things we do at True Value, we undertook an intense and consuming process to figuratively tear down the entire structure then put it back together with a mix of the best attributes we have today, along with new and improved processes and approaches we will put in place for tomorrow," said Burger. "We are very proud and excited to pull the sheet off our work and share this plan with you today."