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House-Hasson Hardware is hosting its fall dealer market in Lexington, Kentucky, this year for the first time due to growth in the northern portion of its 17-state service area.
Lexington was chosen as the market site because the distributor has “had exceptional growth in terms of sales and new dealers in states north of our Knoxville, Tennessee, headquarters, and because it’s closer to our second major distribution center in West Virginia,” House-Hasson president Don Hasson says.
The business was growing even before House-Hasson completed its July 2015 acquisition of Long-Lewis Hardware in Birmingham, Alabama, adding some 500 new stores to House-Hasson’s dealer roster, Hasson says.
The Triple Crown Dealer Market opens Thursday at the Lexington Convention Center with a seminar on House-Hasson’s Electronic Toolbox. The E-Toolbox is now in use by about 1,200 of the company’s more than 2,000 dealers, Hasson says. E-Toolbox is the company’s catalog, ordering system, retail price management system and a paperless portal to conduct business with House-Hasson.
“As dealers see the advantages, more are using the E-Toolbox all the time,” Hasson says.
Ron Yatteau, House-Hasson’s online services director, will conduct the E-Toolbox seminar.
“We’ll be demonstrating some of the new functions of E-Toolbox; a preview of what’s coming in terms of mobile apps dealers can use; how they can use CipherLab portable scanners to conduct a physical inventory and update their quantity on hand in their point of sale computer system,” Yatteau says. “We’re also encouraging dealers to go paperless at the market. Customers can check in an order with the CipherLab scanner and E-toolbox.net. They no longer need to check things off on a paper invoice.”
House-Hasson dealers can order from the market floor using their CipherLabs, and can quickly analyze their stores’ assortment compared to one of the distributor’s core assortments.
“This helps a dealer find items that the store doesn’t carry that if it had in stock would lead to more sales,” Hasson says. “It’s all about dealer profitability. The more we help make our hardware store and lumberyard dealers profitable, the better we’re doing our job.”
To mark the occasion of the first Lexington market, the distributor is taking its dealers and their families to a day of horse racing at Keeneland Race Course’s Fall Race Meeting.
House-Hasson serves more than 2,000 dealers in 17 states and the Caribbean Basin. Information about the company, or about the upcoming dealer market, is available at www.househasson.com.
