Ken Clark: Hello everybody, I’m Ken Clark, the editor of Hardware and Building Supply Dealer at HBSDealer.com, and this is our one-on-one interview series. With us is Steve Henry from House Hasson in Tennessee. Steve joined House Hasson in 2010 and was elevated to the presidency in 2021. Welcome to the show, Steve. Can you say hello to our audience?
Steve Henry: Yes, thank you very much for inviting us, and hello to anybody that’s taken the time to see what we’ve got to say. We really appreciate the forum and the opportunity to share a few minutes with you about House Hasson and all the great things we’ve got going on.
Ken: One of the big stories recently has been House Hasson’s acquisition of Bostwick-Braun. In an article on HBS Dealer, we quoted you saying, “Our focus is dealer profitability, and that focus is the reason for the acquisition of Bostwick-Braun.” Can you describe how Bostwick-Braun fits into your plans?
Steve: Well, a lot of folks know we’ve been around a long time and have primarily worked out of two distribution centers. We’ve got our corporate office in Knoxville, Tennessee, and some time back, we bought a warehouse in Pritchard, West Virginia. So, we’re kind of east of the Mississippi River and, of course, have some international accounts in the islands. But being able to double the size of our distribution centers gives us a great opportunity to expand our footprint and what we believe we can do. We’ve been shipping to Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas already, and the purchase of the distribution center in West Helena, Arkansas, really helps us ship hardware in that area.
Ken: It sounds like a great expansion opportunity.
Steve: Yes, it’s been a long haul from Knoxville to Texas, so if we can hit somewhere in between like we did, it helps. The icing on the cake was the Ashley, Indiana warehouse. It gives us a great opportunity to be in states we haven’t been in before, like Michigan, Indiana, and Missouri. We’ve been well-received and are looking forward to a long relationship with those dealers.
Ken: Are you in Knoxville right now?
Steve: Yes, I’m in my office here in Knoxville. It’s a little cloudy today, but there’s a whole lot of hardware business going on, and we’re grateful for that.
Ken: In the press releases from House Hasson, you’re described as America’s largest independent regional hardware distributor. You’re even expanding into the Caribbean. Do you have ambitions to become a national distributor?
Steve: I don’t know if we’ll fare very well on the other side of the Rocky Mountains. I think we like where we are just fine. There are distinct advantages to the size we’re going to be. Our “secret sauce” is relationships, and I’m afraid we wouldn’t do as well in that regard if we expanded too far beyond Indiana or Arkansas. There’s plenty of room to grow where we are, and we enjoy focusing on profitability for our dealers.
Ken: How would you describe your dealers? Are there common denominators?
Steve: We’ve got these small independent hardware stores throughout America that depend on us for hardware, from the front of the store to the back. They’re quaint, little hardware stores in small towns, often far from big box stores. They’re the backbone of America, and many are generational. That’s the fiber of who we are—we love catering to these folks and getting to know them.
Ken: How’s business at House Hasson? Are you seeing growth with your customers?
Steve: We’ve been overwhelmed, honestly. We’re really busy, but the hardest part is hiring. It’s tough to find enough people to do the job every day. We need more folks in all our warehouses, and they’re hard to come by. But we have plenty of work and are grateful for that. We’ve gotten several hundred new dealers from the Bostwick-Braun acquisition, and we’re filling warehouses with new stock, teaching our methods, and moving our technology into these locations.
Ken: In addition to the acquisition, are there any other highlights you’d like to mention?
Steve: We’ve just gotten through a very successful June market here in East Tennessee, in the Smoky Mountains, which was probably the largest market we’ve had in June—a record. We’re moving our next market to Charlotte, North Carolina, in October. One of the drawbacks we’ve heard from our dealers is that it’s hard to fly into Knoxville, so we fixed that by moving it to Charlotte, which has a larger airport. There’s even going to be a NASCAR race and an NFL game that weekend, so it’ll be a big event.
Ken: Well, I want to thank you for joining our one-on-one interview series. Steve Henry is the president and CEO of House-Hasson Hardware. Thank you so much, Steve.
Steve: Thank you very much. We appreciate the call.
