Personnel Update
The Hillman Companies, Inc. has named Gregory Gluchowski as President and CEO. Effective Sept. 8, Gluchowski officially took the helm at Hillman and become a member of the company’s board of directors.
House-Hasson Hardware has named Jason Monroe VP Merchandising for, the Knoxville, Tennessee-based regional distributor. Other House-Hasson promotions are Ray Bradley to Product Manager, and Connie Brooks has become a Product Manager for the Knoxville and Prichard, West Virginia, warehouse. Monroe assumes the role previously held by Allen Winn, who was with House-Hasson for 32 years, 22 of which he spent running the company’s merchandise department. Winn passed away June 5.
Lumber Liquidators has hired a new executive to help it fight off an avalanche of legal troubles that has hammered the flooring retailer. The company announced that Jill Witter is its new Chief Compliance and Legal Officer. Witter will be reporting to founder and acting CEO Thomas Sullivan, who has been running the company ever since Robert Lynch suddenly resigned in May.
PPG announced that Michael H. McGarry has been promoted to the positions of President and CEO of PPG Industries. He will join the company’s Board of Directors immediately. McGarry, who has served as PPG’s President and Chief Operating Officer since March, will succeed Chairman and CEO Charles E. Bunch in the role of CEO. Bunch, who has led PPG for the last decade, will continue as Executive Chairman.
PRO Group has promoted Channing Miller from the role of Marketing & Merchandising Coordinator to Associate Merchandise Manager. Miller has been with the company for about a year, coordinating special buys and recruiting new vendors at trade shows and conferences, responsibilities that she will maintain in her new position. She will also be responsible for the Pet, Farm/Ag Supply, Automotive, Non-traditional and Seasonal categories, as well as working with additional vendors in Paint Sundries and Lawn & Garden.
PRO Group hired Jeff Styerwalt as Merchandise Manager. Styerwalt’s responsibilities include Housewares, Lawn and Garden, Paint and Sundries, and Commodities. Styerwalt was a Senior Buyer at ProBuild, purchasing building material products for 110 lumberyards.
WOLF, the largest supplier of kitchen cabinets in the U.S. and a leading provider of building products, has announced the hiring of Joe Person as CFO. Person will oversee the evaluation of WOLF’s fiscal function and performance, as well as develop operational and organizational financial strategies. The appointment of Person follows the retirement of now former CFO Michael Newsome. Person served as a Naval Intelligence Officer for Navy Seal Team Ten, the Office of Naval Intelligence, and the National Security Agency. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the United States Naval Academy and an MBA from the University of Maryland.
Financial Focus
La-Z-Boy announced that for the fiscal year, net sales rose 5% to $1.43 billion and net income was up 28.5% to $70.8 million or $1.34 per share.
Mergers and Acquisitions
BMC, based in Atlanta, Georgia, has agreed to acquire the operations of Atlanta-based Robert Bowden, Inc.
Industry Insight
The True Value Company family has expanded with the addition of Pittsburgh-based Busy Beaver Home Improvement Centers. Busy Beaver, which now operates 16 full-line home improvement centers in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, was founded in 1962 in Pittsburgh as a distributor of roofing, lumber and building materials.Busy Beaver will be serviced by the co-op’s regional distribution center in Cleveland, joining over 20 other True Value stores that currently operate in the Pittsburgh area. The company has been under new ownership since late 2013.
The True Value Company announced that Miami Home Centers is the newest addition to the True Value Company.
Real Estate
84 Lumber has revealed its plans for next year, and it looks as though expansion is the name of the game in 2016, along with a handful of consolidations.
The company will be adding a minimum of 10 new locations and will continue to expand its manufacturing programs for custom doors, engineered wood products (EWP,) custom millwork, and components. This stacks up against four stores that the company re-opened over the past two years in response to improving housing starts in those markets: Winder, Georgia (Atlanta,) Macedonia, Ohio (Cleveland,) and most recently St. Augustine, Florida (August) and Savanah, Georgia, (September). St. Augustine and Savanah also feature new 84 Door Shops as well as Kitchen and Bath Design Studios.
The stores being consolidated into other existing stores are: Belle, Ripley and Mineral Wells, West Virginia; Maysville, Hazard and Bardstown, Kentucky; Sennett, New York; and Somerset, Pennsylvania.
Other growth markets that will figure into next year’s expansion plans include Long Island, New York; West Palm Beach, Florida, Denver, Colorado; Stockton, California; Los Angeles; and Raleigh, North Carolina. The company also plans to open an Engineered Wood Products center and door shop in Raleigh and a truss and panel plant in Indianapolis.
IKEA broke ground on a new, larger store in Burbank, California. The store is less than one mile away from the company’s existing Burbank store, which is also the oldest IKEA store in the Western United States. The existing store will remain open until the new store opens in Spring 2017. IKEA’s Burbank footprint will expand from 242,000 sq. ft, to 456,000 sq. ft.
