At the Do it Best Spring Market, co-op leadership compared the organization to the television show, “The Six Million Dollar Man,” Bigger. Stronger. Faster. More competitive. With the recent acquisition of True Value, there’s a lot of improvement for the organization lined up, and it starts first and foremost with partnerships.
As a whole, Do it Best is aggressively pursuing growth, top executives report. A merger with United Hardware increased membership by 20%, and with the acquisition of True Value, Do it Best Group has formed the biggest home improvement co-op in the world. And over goal? To deliver more profitability, more efficiency, and more opportunities for its members.
There were many questions when Do it Best acquired True Value, but the organization remains focused on the success of independent lumberyards and hardware stores. It felt compelled to step in when trouble loomed for True Value, and it wanted to prevent massive disruption for all those retailers.
And while there have been difficult times, Improvement is constantly happening, say Do it Best leaders. For example, they report fill rates that have gone from 60% to surpassing 90% in just four month, along with 70% unaided brand recognition.
Success, however, is hinged on members choosing Do it Best and True Value as their primary and secondary sources, leaders point out. Do it Best has made rebuilding vendor trust a top priority, overcoming uncertainty from the old regime, and it promises to deliver better products, lower prices and higher profitability for the members.
The organization sees this commitment as a focus on providing value, not just providing product. To that end, Do it Best has launched new initiatives to help its members succeed. For example, its Member Replenishment Services program, led by Mike Ter Molen, LBM operations for lumber and building materials at Do it Best, allows members to be more member facing and spend less time on inventory management. With the program, it can take control of the execution of strategy when it comes to inventory, and through looking at reports, it can make real time decisions when it comes to purchasing.
As well, Operations Excellence led by Scott Morrison, Do it Best’s LBM manager for member operations excellence, looks for ways for its member to improve process both in the yard and in the office. Through it, Do it Best’s team will conduct a walk around, do an assessment, and from there, write up a proposal to increase efficiency and excellence. They look at such things as do you have the most high-touch products in the right place, based on two years of data from the member, with the goal of improving efficiency by 25-35%.
Business process improvement is the other half of this initiative, beginning with identifying the current state of the member’s business with a process map, then looking at how many time do staff touch the various business parts, who do they pass those parts off to, and how can that be improved.
Like with the analogy of the Six Million Dollar Man, there has been pain over the past few years, but Do it Best is committed to make the organization as a whole for all its members bigger, stronger, faster, and more productive.
