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This year has been big for House-Hasson Hardware, which completed more new stores and remodels for dealers in 2015 than in any other year in the company’s history.
House-Hasson reached store-set records for itself in 2013 and 2014, but this past year has “kept our team remarkably busy, which is indicative of an improving economy,” company president Don Hasson says.
The independent regional hardware distributor is based in Knoxville, Tennessee, and serves hardware stores and lumberyards in 17 states and the Caribbean Basin.
“One year’s growth in new store-sets might be an aberration. Two is an indicator. Three is a trend,” Hasson says. “A growing number of dealers are building new stores or upgrading existing stores, something they’d put off because of uncertainty over the economy’s direction.”
House-Hasson will complete 36 store-sets by year-end, designing and stocking 14 new stores for dealers and remodeling 22 others, Dave Helfenberger, marketing vice president, says. The company has conducted more than 100 store-sets in the past three years.
“Dealers are recognizing that updated stores create increased sales for customers,” Helfenberger says. He leads a 12-member team that carries out store-set plans and implementation work throughout House-Hasson’s service area.
House-Hasson has also converted another 67 stores completely to House-Hasson’s ordering, electronic support and other systems, Helfenberger says.
“Some of this has come about from our acquisition earlier this year of Long-Lewis Hardware,” Helfenberger says. “Others have come from conversions of competitors’ stores.”
He has seen a particular uptick in store-sets and full conversions in Alabama, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The largest store-sets in 2015 were a 17,000 square-foot new store and a 9,000 square-foot remodel.
Hasson expects store-set work to continue to grow.
“Our independent dealers see the value in the investment they’ve made in their stores, and they want to see that investment grow even more,” he says. “That’s a driver for store-sets, and why we’re anticipating no letup in this area.”
