Ace Hardware Casts Vision for Future Growth at General Session

The 2026 Ace Fall Convention commenced this morning with the opening General Session featuring remarks from Ace Hardware president and CEO John Venhuizen, SVP and chief retail strategy officer Andy Enright and SVP of merchandising Brian Wiborg. 

Venhuizen posed a question to retailers: Why does Ace go to such extraordinary lengths to build a retail growth strategy? He then shared four reasons why the company is focused on growth, including to pursue excellence, stand strong against competitor threats, address the decline in independent businesses and continue to “serve as the hope of the hardware industry.” 

“We develop these strategies because excellence increases our chances to win, and because excellence honors God and it inspires people, and that’s not a small thing,” Venhuizen says. “To me, that’s the whole thing.”

Along with being able to compete with large and well-funded competitors, Venhuizen says that Ace’s growth strategy works to help retailers to not become part of the diminishing group of independent businesses, which as of 2025 made up 23% of market share, compared to 50% in 1982.  

“Ace offers the combination of two beautiful things: the skill and the scale of a globally trusted brand and the local autonomy of a community-rooted, embraced entrepreneur,” Venhuizen says. “That global and local married together has created an advantage.”

Ace is committed to investing $1.4 billion in future growth, Venhuizen says, and wants to see 3,500 stores reach Pinnacle and Platinum status, have 3,200 stores with Elevate Ace and add 600 locations by 2030. 

Offering a glimpse into some of the digital strategies Ace is focused on, Enright shared that Ace continues to partner with Google and ChatGPT, with 2.5% of organic traffic is coming from ChatGPT. The company is also continuing strong in the digital marketplace with partnerships with DoorDash, Uber Eats and Instacart and is on pace to have 1 million transactions among those three online delivery platforms. 

“Retailers that have the products customers want, convenient local availability, well-structured and maintained product info, a strong digital presence, a convenient location, fast and competitive delivery options and helpful and credible expertise are poised to win,” Enright says. 

Early in 2026, Ace launched Hey ARMA!, an AI-powered platform that helps associates answer customer questions, find information about products in the store and current promotions and more. Enright shared some examples of the ways Hey ARMA! is benefiting associates with additional knowledge because “stores that are more helpful are more successful.” 

“When we study the stores that do the best, it is the stores that are running the playbook,” Enright says. “It makes sense because our playbook is made up of our three competitive differentiators—quality, convenience and service.”

Wiborg closed the General Session sharing that 550 stores have added Elevate Ace and have seen an 11.1% sales increase and a 9.1% profit increase. He also shared that Ace currently has over 50 exclusive contracts with vendors and over the last 12 months, has signed 22 new vendors to exclusive contracts. Two of the newest vendors to go exclusive with Ace are Recteq and Woodstream.

“My job is to secure brands that customers demand they can’t get everywhere else. We have 50 exclusive contracts that are saying yes to Ace, and we need to say yes back to them,” Wiborg says. “My job is to position you for store expansion. There are over 2,000 market development areas that need your leadership and need you to make an impact, and my job is to develop retail-ready programs that are ready to execute.”