Golden Hammer Awards presented at National Hardware Show

Las Vegas The home improvement industry’s top retailers and suppliers were honored at the 24th Annual Golden Hammer Awards, held here in conjunction with the National Hardware Show. The May 6 ceremony at the Las Vegas Convention Center inducted Howard Elsberry, the former president and CEO of Westlake Hardware, as a member of the Home Channel Hall of Fame. Elsberry retired last year after a 40-year career as a hardware retailer.

Golden Hammer awards given to retail companies included Lowe’s as Retail Partner of the Year; ToolKing.com as Specialty Retailer of the Year; and Hanneke Hardware as Innovative Retailer of the Year. Tony Miller, accepting the award for Hanneke Hardware, said the St. Louis dealer has continually adapted its three stores to serve a shifting clientele of landlords, industrial users, builders, contractors and homeowners. “As all of you know, it’s easier to grow business with existing customers than to find new ones,” Miller said.

In the vendor category, Weber-Stephen was named 2008 Vendor of the Year. A communication award in the point of purchase category went to Premier Retail Networks for their Ryobi One video ads in Home Depot stores. A packaging award was given to Quickie Manufacturing for their AirWick Fresh Sweep broom. Elmer’s Products received a business-to-business advertising award for their “Elmer’s Rebuilt” campaign. Epoch Design took home the business-to-consumer award for “MailBoss,” their locking security mailbox campaign. The communications award for signage went to M-D Building Products, which created retractable trade show banners for Dupont caulk.

The Golden Hammer Committee, comprised of merchants from Ace Hardware, True Value, Do it Best, Orgill, Orchard Supply Hardware, Westlake Hardware and Elliott’s Hardware, also gave out five “committee choice” awards: Hillman Fasteners for category management; 3M for inventory management; Weber-Stephen for new product innovation; First Alert for quality control; and Andersen Windows for serving the pros.

Thirty-four suppliers also were honored with HCN’s Silver Circle awards. For a complete listing, see the June 16 issue of Home Channel News.

For the full list of winners, go to www.goldenhammerawards.com.