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Ace Hardware Corp. has hired Kirk Armstrong as a new executive to work on the co-op’s distribution and supply chain team.
He is taking on the role of vice president of distribution and supply chain innovation and will be reporting to Lori Bossmann, executive vice president and chief supply chain officer.
Along with his team, Armstrong will be responsible for overseeing Ace’s distribution, traffic and corporate engineering operations, according to Ace.
“We are pleased to welcome Kirk to Ace as our new vice president of distribution and supply chain innovation,” Bossmann says. “We remain intensely focused on enhancing our supply chain and believe Kirk will help us achieve that vision.”
Armstrong joins Ace Hardware from Owens & Minor, a health care distributor and solutions provider, where he served as senior vice president of operations and supply chain. From 2003 to 2011, he worked at Essendant, a business products distributor. Prior to joining Essendant, he spent 13 years at Grainger in positions of increasing responsibility, lastly as region vice president of distribution operations.
Ace Hardware is a retailer-owned hardware cooperative with more than 5,200 locally owned and operated hardware stores in approximately 70 countries. Headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, Ace and its subsidiaries operate an expansive network of distribution centers in the U.S. and have distribution capabilities in Ningbo, China; Colon, Panama; and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
