Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
From vendors to retailers, special guests to industry players, the floor of the Do it Best and True Value 2025 Spring Market was packed with nearly 11,000 attendees. Do it Best members and True Value retailers came together under the theme of Bigger. Stronger. Faster. for product discovery, educational sessions and answers to what’s next for the companies.
At the Market Kickoff event, Do it Best and True Value CEO Dan Starr welcomed Do it Best members and True Value retailers, sharing his vision for what’s next for the partnership between the two companies.
“This room is filled with the strongest, most committed and most forward-thinking independent dealers in the nation, and your presence here is a testament to the power of what we can accomplish together,” Starr says. “This market is about momentum and taking everything we’ve built—our partnerships, innovations and commitment to growth—and using it to fuel the future.”
During the media kickoff event, Do it Best president Nick Talarico and True Value president Dent Johnson dove deeper into some of the questions retailers and the industry have had about Do it Best and True Value coming together.
Branding continues to be a hot topic, with many wondering what will happen to the True Value brand in the future. Johnson reiterated that Do it Best Group—the company created as a result of the acquisition—will continue investing in the True Value brand because they believe it is an asset worth preserving and growing.
“The True Value brand has amazing brand awareness across the consumer groups even when there’s been little-to-no investment over the last decade,” Johnson says. “We’re encouraged by what we can do when we invest properly in the brand.”
Talarico echoed Johnson’s sentiments, breaking down the three levels of branding the company now offers retailers—national, regional and specialty and member branding. He assured that they will not push a retailer into one brand or another, but rather help them examine their market to find the best fit.
“If you want a national brand, we have a solution. If you want a regional specialty brand, we have a solution. Or if you want to fly your own flag, we have a solution there,” Talarico says.
One of the biggest challenges to bringing the two companies together was making sure none of the retailers lost their identity, Johnson says. Mixing two cultures who previously were competitors was also a hurdle to cross.
“We are a retailer-first company. We want retailers to be who they are, and so we have to figure out how to adapt to support them in the appropriate way,” Johnson says. “Thankfully, our cultures are very well aligned. Now that we’ve had that time together, I think it’s going to be awesome moving forward.”
When asked how they plan to navigate the relationship between Do it Best members and True Values retailers who have stores in the same areas and previously were competitors, Talarico says it was a major concern as Do it Best was considering the purchase of True Value’s assets.
“When the opportunity came to step in during this bankruptcy, we ultimately decided if we had to work through that issues with some retailers, that would be OK because we felt the need to step in on behalf of the entire independent home improvement space to help prevent major supply chain disruption to the True Value retailers,” Talarico says. “Surprisingly, there have been very few of those kinds of conversations. And where those instances exist, our extensive vendor relationships will allow them to continue to differentiate with product.”
Tariffs were another major topic of conversation. Johnson says Do it Best and True Value held their vendors accountable to pricing at the market and encouraged retailers to take advantage of numerous deal programs available at the market.
“We don’t know exactly where things are going because the news is changing every week, so to make any type of promise regarding tariffs is false advertising,” Johnson says. “I would say we’re concerned about margin pressure, so we advise retailers to buy up, especially at this show. We’re going to push back hard to make sure that our members and retailers are competitive.”
On the LBM side of the business, vice president of lumber and building materials Russ Kathrein announced the launch of the Do it Best Materials Member Replenishment Services program during the market kickoff. The program provides a dedicated LBM Do it Best team member who works as an extension of a retail operation’s team to execute a purchase strategy based on the information in the operation’s ERP system.
“Retailers still retain full control of strategy, they just give up the tedious, time-consuming pro
cess of replenishing lumber, panel and other building materials,” Kathrein says. “This is a service no one else in the industry offers, and it’s already making an impact.”
Industry expert Scott Morrison has also joined Do it Best to help dealers enhance workflow efficiency and profitability in LBM operations.
Retailers Find Answers
Along with shopping for deals, many retailers say they attended the market in hopes of finding answers to their own questions about the acquisition and about their operations in general.
Jeff Peck, owner of Brunswick True Value in Brunswick, Ohio, says he attended the market to meet Do it Best retailers and stay connected with True Value retailers.
“I am cautiously optimistic about the future together and how our cultures will work together, so I think the Spring Market was helpful for answering some of those questions I had,” Peck says.
As a True Value retailer for over 10 years, J-Town Hardware owners Bradley and Jennifer Carson say they were excited to attend the combined spring market to meet new retailers and learn more about the Do it Best side of the business.
“We also really appreciated the full day of education,” Bradley says. “I’ve never experienced anything like that before and those sessions were really helpful for me moving forward.”
Less than a year ago, Bob Harmon, operations manager of Metzger’s Do it Best Hardware with two locations in Los Alamos, New Mexico, joined the Metzger’s Hardware family. He was attending the market to learn as much as possible about running a Do it Best store, especially best practices to hire and retain employees.
“We are in a difficult labor market because of other major employers in the area, so I was looking for ways to find good employees and keep them,” Harmon says. “The educational sessions were extremely helpful for that.”
