In driving store growth, Ace Hardware has already opened over 100 new stores in 2023, and is planning to open more than 170 by the end of the year, the company indicated as it prepares for its annual convention.
The company has opened more than 1,100 stores in the past five years while disbursing dividends of $345 million and providing a 39% return for Ace shareholders in 2022, it maintained.
Ace operates more than 5,800 locally owned hardware stores in all 50 of the United States and 60 countries, it pointed out, with global sales topping $22 billion. Ace’s unique cooperative business model offers local entrepreneurs not only the ability to become owners of their local store operations but also to become Ace Hardware Corp. shareholders.
Existing retailers opening additional locations has fueled new store growth as has competitor stores converting to Ace and new investors opening their first Ace Hardware stores. Interest in owning and operating a local Ace Hardware store remains at historically high levels, the company maintained. More than 200 prospective new retailers will attend the upcoming Ace Fall Convention, September 18-21, in Orlando, FL, the company noted. There, it added, they can check out products, services and operating methods that have made Ace Hardware the fastest-growing convenience hardware retailer in the U.S.
“With over 100 new stores already opened for the year, we remain enthusiastically bullish about the continued prospect for new store growth,” stated. Ace Hardware President and CEO, John Venhuizen. “I applaud our local Ace owners for the pace with which they’ve integrated our digital efforts with our physical assets. Seventy percent of Acehardware.com orders are picked up in store and 20% are delivered to customers by our own red vested heroes, thus further advancing the relevance and necessity of our neighborhood stores.”
