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As the company works to build a dual-channel model of retail and service, Ace Hardware has made promoting and expanding its Ace Home Services a priority in 2025.
Ace Hardware Home Services brings professional home repair and maintenance solutions directly to customers’ homes. Home services vary by location and include handyman, plumbing, electrical work, painting, heating and cooling, carpentry and general home maintenance and are performed by trained professionals. Ace Hardware Home Services is available in over 5,000 zip codes, with at least one branch location in each of the 48 continental U.S.
Hardware Retailing sat down with Jason Hipskind, Ace president of plumbing, heating, cooling and electrical, who shared more into the company’s strategies and goals for the Ace Home Services program in 2025 and beyond.
“Since our humble beginnings in 1924, Ace has been providing helpful to neighbors in need. This has been and continues to be driven by our purpose of serving others,” Hipskind says. “To not only remain relevant but growing, we’ve stayed willing to listen, adapt and change, all while remaining true to our vision and values. Ace Home Services and Handyman is the next step in that journey.”
Hardware Retailing (HR): What will be the biggest value retailers will gain from the new focus on Ace Hardware Home Services?
Jason Hipskind (JH): Our vision is to be the best, most trusted partner in preserving the place our neighbors call home, and when executed with excellence, Ace awareness and consideration become top of mind for consumers, driving best-in-class brand trust and loyalty. Along with increased customer loyalty, retailers gain new revenue streams and competitive differentiation. We’re excited about this because it sets Ace Hardware apart in a meaningful way. Whether our neighbors want to roll up their sleeves and fix it themselves or would rather have someone take care of it for them, Ace is bringing helpful to them.
HR: How do the current retail conditions play into your strategy? Are you seeing a shift from DIY to DIFM in the market?
JH: The Do-It-For-Me (DIFM) market is over $175 billion in annual sales and growing. The professionals, craftsmen and technicians that provide the in-home services in this segment, purchase their product over a very diverse and fragmented group of suppliers, including supply houses, big-box retailers, home centers, lumberyards and hardware stores. There is tremendous upside for Ace to capture market share in this growing market and our strategy positions us to capitalize on this opportunity.
HR: Will you be looking at existing Ace retailers to help expand these franchises or will you be looking to bring in new owners for these franchises?
JH: Ace Handyman is a franchise opportunity that has seen tremendous growth the last several years, with both existing Ace retailers and new owners becoming franchisees. In plumbing, heating, cooling and electrical, we are in the early stages of the business, and we have been focused on acquiring existing home services companies. As we continue our growth in plumbing, heating, cooling and electrical, we are exploring the best opportunities to scale the business and provide value to existing Ace shareholders.
