True Value Report
True Value steps up to the challenge CEO CHRIS KEMPA SHARES HIS THOUGHTS ON SOME OF THE BIGGEST ISSUES IN DISTRIBUTION By Ken Clark
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upply chain. Labor. Inflation. Check, check, check. In an interview with HBSDealer, True Value CEO Chris Kempa didn’t miss a beat tackling the three big issues facing the business of distribution. The industry veteran – whose resume includes leadership posts with other Chicagoland distribution giants, Grainger and Essendant — fluently described in detail the interconnected (and unprecedented) global challenges facing the industry. Boiling it all down to brass tacks, he delivered a positive assessment on the state of post-pandemic distribution. “We just continue on a monthly basis to assess where we’re at,” he said. “The good news is: we are in a better place.” More good news from the True Value CEO is based on the health of its customers, as well as its customers’ customers. “The pandemic drove feet into our customers’ stores, and they keep coming back” Kempa said. “So the independent hardware retailers, and specifically our hardware stores, know how to manage in their markets. They know how to serve customers. They had a lot of them come back through their doors and they’re keeping up.”
Supply-chain challenge
Kempa listed the challenges facing the business of moving products across land or sea: Closed ports in China, container shortages, truck availability, driver shortages. On top of it all looms the threat of a strike at ports along the U.S. West Coast, where members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union are working without a contract. And through it all, “There is no playbook,” he told HBSDealer. For True Value, rising to the challenge of supply-chain uncertainty begins with its people .
A distributor in the FLOW True Value Company is one of a small number of U.S. companies asked to share their expertise managing the supply chain crisis. The distributor has been working with FLOW, the Freight Logistics Optimization Works program. Set up by the Department of Transportation, FLOW aims to improve congestion and speed up the movement of goods by establishing a baseline supply chain data infrastructure to significantly improve goods movement coordination. True Value will contribute critical data about the supply
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“We have over the last couple years, built the best-in-class team that really manages the end-to-end supply chain,” Kempa said. “And so we have gained an advantage based on our team. We are doing everything we can to move and get goods. And from my perspective, our team has done an incredible job.” That job includes building diverse options into the supply chain, finding dual sources, looking at new countries of origin and preparing for the unexpected. “And we’ve been doing that from day one,” he said. Among those leading the charge is Jennifer McNeill, True Value vice president Chris Kempa, CEO, of logistics and one of the True Value driving forces behind the distributor’s participation in the White House FLOW program. That’s the Freight Logistics Optimization Works program, a data-sharing group of distribution leaders created to ease supply chain congestion and share perspectives. “Our perspective is easy,” Kempa said. “Please help me get goods so that I can take care of my customers.” [See sidebar: Distributor in the FLOW]
chain to help give a clearer, real-time picture of the flow of goods and where infrastructure improvements should be focused. CEO Chris Kempa, who joined a roundtable discussion at the launch of the task force, said it was an honor to participate. “These have been exceptional times, and I’m very proud of the innovative solutions we employed to help our retailers remain in stock so they could effectively serve their communities during the pandemic,” he said. True Value’s Vice President of Logistics Jennifer McNeill is spearheading True Value’s role in the high-level program, including
July/August 2022 HARDWARE + BUILDING SUPPLY DEALER
The distributor contributes to the Freight Logistics Optimization Works program.
participating in a live discussion with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “By now the confluence of factors is wellknown: raw-material shortages, factory closures, vendor service-level disruptions and allocations, port congestion — the list goes on,” she said. “What we learned in mitigating all of this should prove valuable in helping to plot national strategy moving forward.”
HBSDealer.com
