July/August 2019 ALLPRO Independent

ALLPRO

INDEPENDENT J U LY / AU G U S T 2 019

Service Matters

This team has kept its founder’s promise to focus on customers

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ALLPRO A L L S TA R S

ALABAMA PA I N T M A S T E R S

W H AT I S LEADERSHIP?

Street smarts work but so do master’s degrees

PLUS * • M I K E ’S MESSAGE

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Three group members score an annual honor .

A top CEO shares how the best bosses think

• OPEN FOR BUSINESS • industry news

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FROM US TO YOU

Eye on the Future

By Mike Beaudoin, ALLPRO executive vice president

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s we pass the midyear mark, we have a sharper sense of the business climate for the year. That climate can be defined by a healthy economy but that good health can be fleeting, depending on the weather in a given region. It was an unusually cold and wet spring for many parts of North America, which delayed the exterior season. In addition, there

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The foundation of our industry is strong.

Growth and demand will lead to a continued healthy business climate in the long term.

ALLPRO is working hard to ensure we continue to invest to help the group keep pace.

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have been unprecedented tariffs and, consequently, price increases. These challenges seemed to come in waves during the first half of the year and were disruptive to the normal flow of business.

Despite these difficulties, the foundation of our industry is strong.

Growth and demand will lead to a

continued healthy business climate in the long term. ALLPRO is working hard to ensure we continue to invest to help the group keep pace and provide value to our stakeholders. Below are some of the initiatives you can look forward to in the coming months: Hiring for Talent The first and most important investment has been hiring and training talented people at ALLPRO. Like any business, employees are our greatest asset, and we are investing more to deliver top talent. Since the beginning of the year, we have hired several people in the accounting department as well as a new system analyst. In each case, we searched for qualified candidates with a proven track record of success. Our goal is to have skilled and talented people to assist with invoicing and understanding our SAP system. Our expectations for these roles are greater than in previous times, and we will continue to search for and retain top talent.

Improved Technology We recently designed and invested in a new member portal that will be launched before year-end. The portal will help streamline the payment process by allowing members to electronically report exceptions, quickly print invoices and pay electronically by entering account

ALLPRO Independent

information and picking the posting date (similar to paying a car payment or credit card bill).

We are also in the early planning stages of redesigning the ALLPRO corporate website. Our goal is to customize it for each company to give quick access to the many features it will provide. Companies will have the ability to generate reports on demand, such as monthly purchase or sales reports, distribution purchases and more. We will improve the efficiency of accessing supplier information to include all available promotions and make member purchasing updates continuous rather than a biweekly post. Finally, we will have a news feed area that will include social media

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ALLPRO Leadership

About ALLPRO Independent

How to Reach Us

President Glen Morosohk

We are a bimonthly publication dedicated to

Write us at ALLPRO Corporation

Executive Vice President Mike Beaudoin

strengthening the ALLPRO community with

4946 Joanne Kearney Blvd., Tampa, FL 33619

Vice President of Merchandising Scott Morath

relevant stories and news. Your suggestions,

Or contact us at 813-628-4800 or by email at allpro@allprocorp.com.

Marketing Coordinator Susie Fontana

opinions and feedback are encouraged.

All publishing services provided by Stevens Editorial.

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feeds, real-time callouts of important industry information, bulletin board postings and more. These are just a few of the many upgrades that will be included in the site’s redesign.

Better Integration ALLPRO distribution has quickly become an important benefit of membership, and we recently upgraded the distribution websites to improve the ordering process. Members can now connect directly to our system via EDI. Several members are currently connected, and several more are in the testing stage. This service bypasses the distribution website and enables ALLPRO plans to expand two of their distribution centers, including this one in Tampa, Florida. members to place orders directly from their system. In addition, we provide Other initiatives are in the works to include a selfregular system-generated updates on pricing and new funded health care program that we hope to deliver in 2020. products. We have two leases expiring in 2021 (Northeast More to come on that in another article. With our eyes on and Southeast D.C.), and in each case we plan to expand the future, we will continue to challenge ourselves, our to a larger facility that will allow us to offer more products. technology and our processes to bring our members and We are also actively looking for a Midwest location that will supplier partners ever increasing value. complete our coverage in the U.S. market.

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All Pro

ALLPRO Members Get All-Star Recognition

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popular trade magazine recently honored three ALLPRO members as top performers in their respective states for the year: J. C. Licht for Illinois, HPM Building Supply for Hawaii and Norfolk Hardware for Massachusetts. HBS Dealer, a publication covering the hardware and building-supply industry, dubbed the members “hardware all-stars” in its May issue. The awards are the result of an annual competition that recognizes the top performers in the hardware and home center business. The competition honors one business in each state.

Norfolk Hardware was also the subject of a letter from the editor, Ken Clark, who singled out the business for its achievements and long history. Clark describes how Norfolk kept up with changing times by redesigning its showrooms.

“Wide aisles, bright lighting, a colorful Paint Pub (complete with authentic bar stools) are some of the features of the 40,000-square-foot home center,” Clark writes.

Ben Rosen, Norfolk’s VP, is the fourth generation of his family to run the store and says the shift in priorities was a response to what was happening in the community

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around him. “We saw this neighborhood just totally change with all kinds of new residents moving in,” Rosen told Clark. “So we thought we really needed to update the store to stay current.”

Ireland’s Pat McDonnell Chips In

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that had been “looted by Napoleon.”

In an interview in the Irish Examiner, exhibition curator Dr. Michael Waldron was complimentary of the work done

by McDonnell Paints. “We wanted to make a contemporary statement,” Waldron said. “It took us a while to arrive at the right tone with our color consultants because we didn’t want it to feel somber or traditional. We didn’t want it to be overwhelming either, so we settled on this really beautiful color. It’s blue but there’s a definite hint of yellow-green, and in certain sunlight it just glows.”

July/August 2019 ALLPRO Independent

Photo (above left): Norma Cuddihy

LLPRO member Pat McDonnell Paints did its part this year to support the arts by sponsoring the remodeling of a space that houses a number of historically important Irish sculptures. The space, located in the city of Cork’s Crawford Art Gallery in southern Ireland, currently displays the sculptures. The gallery also houses nearly 4,000 other works of art including Irish and European paintings, sculptures and modern video installations. Pat McDonnell Paints is led by its eponymous founder Pat, who started the business more than 40 years ago out of an 8-by-8 foot space on a busy street in Cork. Now McDonnells is a chain of eight stores across Ireland that includes locations in the business centers of Dublin, Kilkenny and Galway.

The sculptures exhibited in the redone space are marble casts created by Italian sculptor Antonio Canova. The collection is thought to have been commissioned by Pope Pius VII in 1810 and given to the people of Cork as a gift in 1818, according to writer Kieran McCarthy as he covered the bicentennial of the sculptures’ arrival on Irish shores. The Pope was grateful, McCarthy said, for the return of masterpieces to the Vatican

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Please welcome our newest ALLPRO members Santa Barbara Paint Depot in Santa Barbara, California, and Wigley’s Paint in Waco, Texas.

Join us in congratulating new members joining the group and current members opening new locations.

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July/August 2019 ALLPRO Independent

• Catalina Paints opened a new location in La Crescenta, California.

• Cloverdale Paint opened two stores, one in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, and one in Kitchener, Ontario.

• The Color House added a warehouse in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.

• Diamond Vogel Paints added a location in Burnsville, Minnesota.

• Farrell-Calhoun opened a new store in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

• Guiry’s opened another Denver-area location.

• Home Decor Group added two stores in Massachusetts, one in Chelsea and another in Gloucester.

• Mallory Paint Store opened a new location in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho.

• Regal Decorating & Paint Center added a new store in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

• Ricciardi Brothers added a location in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

• Rodda Paint opened two stores in Oregon, one in Salem and one in Klamath Falls.

• White Street Paint & Wallpaper added a new location in Stratham, New Hampshire.

Canpro Decorating Products added three new stores: Beacon Heights Paint & Design in Calgary, Alberta; Whitby Paint & Decorating in Whitby, Ontario; and Primetime Paint & Paper in Etobicoke, Ontario.

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MEMBER PROFILE

Standard Paint & Flooring Company president Regan Myers still has customers who remember his grandfather’s oft-used catchphrase: “Thanks a million.”

Behind the counter, store manager Jeff Rock (left) and assistant manager Jared Jenkins help customers at the West Valley Yakima store.

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he service philosophy at Standard Paint & Flooring is as venerable as the store itself.

The store was started in Yakima, Washington, in 1954 by Dick Myers Sr. His nickname among customers was “Thanks a Million Dick,” says his grandson, Regan Myers. “He would always tell the customers ‘thanks a million,’ energetically, when putting their paint in their cars,” Regan says. “My grandpa was very personable and really customer-focused.”

For days when the store was especially busy, Dick had a sign that read, “We apologize for your wait, but we promise to give you the same amount of personal time and attention when we

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help you.” Regan still encounters customers who recall “Thanks a Million Dick” with pleasure.

Half a century later, Standard Paint & Flooring is still going strong in the Pacific Northwest and is adhering to a more recent service slogan: “Where service is still in style.”

“On the paint side of things, we have low turnover,” Regan says. “So anyone coming into one of our stores is going to work with paint professionals with many years of experience. On the flooring side, they’re going to get really personal service.”

Flooring is by far the biggest seller at Standard Paint & Flooring. It accounts for 56% of the store’s business, with paint accounting for just 20%.

Key members of the Standard team pose outside the downtown Yakima store. Back row from left: Paint counter salesperson Tristan Norman, flooring support person John Whiteside and warehouse manager Tyler Davis. Front row from left: Designer Emily Hunter; paint salespersons Joe Terry and Jim Davis; and cabinet support person Tara Hughey.

getting underway, and he says the downturn made him question whether he did the right thing by agreeing to work toward taking over the business from his father.

“We were fortunate that we never had a year where we lost money, but we definitely had a couple where I wondered what the point was of working so hard for so little gain,” he says. “But I also realized that even during those very challenging years we were moving the company in the right direction. I knew that when we Store designers Marissa Teagan (left) and Devan Van Epps compare carpeting came out of it, the company would samples at the West Valley Yakima location. be positioned well, and we kept making forward momentum.”

Regan says flooring started taking over paint in the In addition to paint and flooring, Standard offers early 2000s and surpassed it in 2013. He thinks the cabinets, stucco and window coverings. It recently added Great Recession may have helped Standard stake an concrete polishing to the mix. Adding a concrete polishing emphatic claim on the local flooring market. It drove division to the business was expensive but well worth some competitors out of business and allowed Standard it, Regan says. “We were noticing that, in a lot of the to weather bad times by depending on a diversified mix of commercial buildings, rather than put flooring in, concrete products and services. was just getting polished,” Regan explains. “So we wanted Regan joined the business as the recession was

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to make sure that we could incorporate that as well.” Some of Standard’s contractor customers apply epoxy to concrete, and they have been hiring Standard to do floor prep ahead of time.

Regan owns 90% of the business with his brother, Craig.

Their father, Dick Myers Jr., retains 10% and still “comes in two mornings a week.” Regan says he and his brother make a good team. “I think my brother and I hold very similar business philosophies as my dad,” he Team members Emily and Tristan research colors in the paint decision area at the downtown Yakima store. says. “I think we have different strengths. My grandpa was very of growing business within our existing locations,” he says. strong in the front of the house; my dad was very strong Regan credits ALLPRO for helping Standard succeed in the back of the house with purchasing, inventory, cash through buying power and access to myriad vendors and and real estate. I think Craig and I have a blend of both colleagues. “It has helped us build relationships with strengths, but probably not as strong as either my grandpa other colleagues in the industry,” he says. “It has given or dad in their respective strengths.” us the opportunity to collaborate with them and to find The business consists of six locations in Washington out what is working well for them so we can make our and Oregon. Regan says he and his brother don’t have own adjustments.” immediate plans to open a new location. “We like the idea

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Susan Nichols and Jonathan Garrett assist ALLPRO member Kevin Westfall of Teknicolors.

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MEMBER PROFILE

Rainbow Paint & Decorating This Alabama retailer’s background in human resources helps him to value people and relationships.

Decorative fiberglass pigs like this one at Rainbow signal to shoppers that the business owner lives in the community. The pigs are part of a local chamber of commerce program.

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hen James Pace bought Rainbow Paint & Decorating in late 2002, he didn’t know much about the paint business. “I jumped in 16 years ago,” he says. “Not being from the paint industry, I have spent the past 16 years trying to figure it out.”

James got into paint because he wanted to get back to Birmingham, Alabama, where he had grown up. He was working in the human resources department of a hospital in Anniston, Alabama, and felt homesick. He and his father started looking around Birmingham for a business they could get into together before the elder Pace retired. They learned that Rainbow Paint & Decorating was for sale.

The business had been failing when James started looking at it. He holds master’s degrees in public administration and business administration, so even though he didn’t know

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the paint business, he did know business. “Studying the financials, I felt like there were some obvious things I could improve,” he says. “So I figured I would jump in and address those issues and then maybe sell the business in three to five years and do something else.”

James Pace earned two master’s degrees before deciding to open a business in Birmingham with his father.

He jumped in, but decided ultimately not to jump out.

Thanks to a building boom in Alabama, 2002 was a good year to buy a paint and decorating store. “From 2002 to the first quarter of 2009, a monkey could have made money in this business,” says James.

Then came what he calls “the correction,” aka the Great Recession. “That’s when you found out who was running a business and who was trying to sell paint,” he says. “The people who were trying to sell paint did not survive.”

James’s strategy for weathering the Great Recession was

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“extreme diversification.” He says his business was close to 90% paint prior to the Great Recession. “We had to look at what was working and what was not working,” he says. “We had to feed success and starve failure.”

Today, paint is at 50% and Rainbow Paint & Decorating

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is one of the largest window treatment distributors in the Southeast. “That is something that year after year is growing for us,” he says. “We’re pumping a lot of blood into window treatments; same for wallpaper. We have the largest wallpaper library in the state.”

During the recession, some standalone wallpaper stores in Alabama didn’t make it. “As those stores went out,” James says, “we had a choice: Should we follow suit and get out of wallpaper or grow our inventory? We decided that every time a wallpaper store closed, we would add more books.”

James looked for pockets of opportunity that weren’t being fully exploited by others. Another pocket of opportunity for Rainbow was premium paint. The rise of big-box stores and other chains meant that inexpensive paint was suddenly ubiquitous. “You can’t hang your hat on that business anymore,” he says. “You could 15 years ago.

Now you can’t go five miles in Birmingham without finding someone who sells that $25 gallon of paint.”

Rainbow still sells that $25 can of paint, but it also offers higher-end products from companies such as Farrow & Ball and Fine Paints of Europe. “In our market, there is that higher-end piece,” James says. “There is that customer who will buy a $130 gallon of paint if they can be educated about why that is a better bucket of paint.”

ALLPRO has helped James’s business enormously, not

only by giving him “exposure to vendors” but by giving him a network of knowledgeable friends. “The number one thing I get out of it is the opportunity to establish lifelong relationships with successful business owners in other markets,” James says. “I can have dinner or coffee with them and say, ‘Hey, this is what I am dealing with right now,’ and get sound wisdom from their experiences. I hope to be the same kind of influence for them and others.” There is “counsel in the wisdom of many,” he says, and ALLPRO’s environment makes that counsel possible.

“Everyone I talk to has a unique perspective,” he says. “They say things like, ‘I dealt with that 10 years ago and let me tell you how I handled it.’ I don’t know how you put a value on that.” A week doesn’t go by when James isn’t on the phone with an ALLPRO member in another market asking for advice about something.

James has no immediate plans to expand beyond the one store. “I know a lot of people who have several stores. One of the recurring things I hear is that you make a little more

Owner James Pace boasts that designers Jenifer Watts and Vicki Parsons are an indispensable part of his team.

money but you work a lot harder. Going from one store to four doesn’t mean quadrupling your income, but it definitely means quadrupling your responsibilities.”

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M ar k etpla c e

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INDUSTRY NEWS

LEADERSHIP ADVICE N

o two businesspeople are exactly alike, but that doesn’t mean they’re completely different. Successful leaders share plenty of personality traits and often have similar approaches to problem solving.

Ajit Gupta, a CEO with 30 years’ experience in the adhesive tapes industry, says this is no accident. “There are no shortcuts in business,” Gupta writes on Entrepeneur.com. “In order to be successful in business and in life in general, there are certain things that you must know. In fact, being an entrepreneur is probably the most difficult job in the world.”

Gupta says that successful business leaders believe in their own vision and follow their instincts.

“It is impossible to know if one decision is right or wrong before you see the results from it. For others to believe in your business and your products, it’s imperative for you to always believe in your vision more than everybody else.”

Time management is another key area in which great leaders excel. Gupta calls time an entrepreneur’s most valuable resource: “You can’t buy it. You can’t find it. You can’t store it. You can’t trade it.” Owners should delegate,

Gupta says, and concentrate on sales. He adds that technological change is inevitable, so the best leaders are at least aware of which technologies impact their businesses and can spot new ones on the horizon. “If you’re one of the few people who know the [new] technology inside out, you put yourself in a unique position to pitch it to your customer and see how it might benefit them. Always remember that new technologies enable change. And whenever there is a change, there is an opportunity.”

In Social Media, Speed Matters

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ocial media is inescapable as a marketing tool for modern businesspeople. Even one-store operations in rural areas are finding it more difficult to avoid Facebook and Twitter.

But it isn’t only important that business owners use social media. Apparently, they have to use it fast. A new study done by HubSpot Research shows how impatient the internet’s speedy pace has made some shoppers. For example, a typical customer

who reaches out to a business through social media wants an immediate response, the study says, and “immediate” can mean as little as 10 minutes. Questions and complaints don’t need to be dealt with right away, but consumers do expect the conversation to get started quickly. So whoever is responsible for the business’s social media accounts needs to stay connected and be attentive.

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INDUSTRY NEWS

Keys to Keeping Your

Customers Marketing Methods That Work

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ocial media gets a lot of press, but it isn’t the only way to get your message out. According to syndicated marketing writer Jeff Shuler, here are four more ways to get the job done.

Get Personal Automation through artificial intelligence systems can save businesses a lot of time. Those solutions are becoming more available and affordable by the day, but managers can fall too much in love with software and web services as a means to maintain connections with customers. The human touch still matters.

Recognize Value How do you identify your biggest customers? Do you reward them?

Make sure you do. Perks, discounts and special privileges at events are excellent ways to let your most valued customers know how important they are to you.

Know What They Want You probably know a lot about your customers, but don’t forget to be curious about why they buy from you in particular. Is it your knowledgeable employees? Your return policy? Your renovated showroom?

What they like tells you how to grow.

Stay Involved Contact your customers in a regular way and at a regular time. They should be able to depend on getting news from your business and on getting that information in the way they prefer, whether that’s by email, text, social media or mobile application.

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Percentage of people who think it’s appropriate to text colleagues or clients outside of working hours. ~ Source: Censuswide, a survey consulting group

July/August 2019 ALLPRO Independent

• BLOGS. They were social media before social media existed, and Shuler says blogs are still one of the most valuable marketing techniques small business owners can use. They combine the benefits of SEO and social media.

• EMAILS. Newsletters that show up in email inboxes can do things other marketing tools can’t. They’re a great vehicle for ads, and some customers just prefer email. You can also publish email newsletters to social media.

• VIDEOS. Nothing makes an impact like a video, and websites like YouTube make it possible for businesses to publish product demonstrations as well as more traditional television-style advertisements.

• Mobile. Data analytics tools can tell you how many potential customers come to your website from a mobile search. If the number is significant, make sure your site is mobile-friendly and that your business is listed in places like Yahoo Local and Google My Business.

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