INDEPENDENT PROFILE
A Louisville succession story Employee rises to ownership of Brownsboro Hardware & Paint By Tim Burke You’ve done it all—swept floors, dusted shelves, and worked your way up to managing the operation. Years flowed past. You learned from a great mentor. And now, you’re owner.
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oug Carroll, employee of 20 years, is the new owner of Brownsboro Hardware & Paint. Do it Best member-owners Jim and Marilyn Lehrer sold the two-store Louisville, Ky.-based business to their trusted store manager recently. Carroll said watching Jim Lehrer and seeing how his success on the wholesale side of the industry helped him be successful on the retail side of it, was a key learning experience. “Jim is very unique in how he operates,” Carroll explained. “I’ve talked with a lot of different owners in different states over the years, and nobody operates quit like he does. He’s
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Doug Carrol, owner of Brownsboro Hardware & Paint, took over the reins from Jim and Marilyn Lehrer, his former employers of two decades. Localownership is highly valued by customers.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 HARDWARE + BUILDING SUPPLY DEALER
a very ‘hands on’ kind of guy. It’s really molded me to know what to expect when running my own business.” The new owner pointed out that having two sons of his own has reinforced the feeling that the business caters to families to help them make their homes better. And he’s picked up on small details of importance to customers and carried them over. “Both Jim and I give out our cell phone numbers to our customers,” Carroll said. “We both strongly believe they deserve it. It’s a little thing, but its effect is phenomenal.” Brownsboro customers have certainly noticed the fine details in continuity, expressing their positive feelings to both the new and prior owners about the local transition. “I have been blown away by the positive response,” Carroll said. “We’ve had hundreds of messages of congratulations on our social media and personal emails. My phone has practically melted down.” The hardware business could easily have sold to out-of-state interests, but instead remains locally owned. The new owner talked with people who didn’t know about the transition. “To put it gently, they were concerned. But once I told them we are staying local, and that they won’t see any difference, they were super relieved and excited.” Carroll said his goal moving forward is to ensure customers don’t see a change. In fact, he noted, “I want them to feel even better about our local presence.” Dial your clock back to the year 2000. Doug Carroll explained that he was in the restaurant business before he came to Brownsboro Hardware & Paint, saying “a friend of a friend of a friend put in a good word to Jim, and when I turned in an application, next thing I know he hired me. “It started out as a job to pay for my car and cell phone, and it just grew over time.” As he watched the business become more successful, Carroll found himself becoming more involved in the business — and he did it without Lehrer even asking him. It continued to grow from there. “Jim offered me a management posi-
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