Do It Best

Last updated
Do it Best
Company type Retailers' cooperative
Industry Retail
Founded1945;80 years ago (1945) as Hardware Wholesalers, Inc.
FounderArnold Gerberding
Headquarters
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Number of locations
Thousands of member-owned locations throughout the United States and more than 50 other countries
Products67,000 [1]
BrandsDo it Best, True Value, Hardware Hank
Revenue$4.7 billion [2]
Subsidiaries True Value
Website www.doitbestonline.com

Do it Best Corp., formerly known as Hardware Wholesalers, Inc. (HWI), is a member-owned hardware, lumber, and building materials cooperative based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Do it Best Corp. is the second-largest co-op in the industry with over $6 billion in annual sales. [3] Do it Best Corp. does not mandate store identities, so member-owners may or may not display the Do it Best brand name in their businesses. [ citation needed ]

Contents

History

Hardware Wholesalers, Inc. (HWI) was founded by Arnold Gerberding in 1945 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with the investments of 100 independent business owners in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. Gerberding used the co-op model so HWI members could get better volume pricing from vendors by buying together rather than on their own. Independent hardware stores became members of the cooperative and its sole shareholders. The first warehouse facility opened in 1948, and HWI added a private truck delivery system in 1955. [4] When Gerberding retired in 1967, HWI had more than 600 members. [ citation needed ]

Don Wolf succeeded Gerberding and opened HWI's first distribution center outside of Fort Wayne in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. In 2014, Do it Best moved that distribution center to Sikeston, Missouri. [5] Today, there are nine centers located across the US as well as three regional lumber offices. [6]

McDaniel's Do it Center Snohomish, Washington Do it Best Corp McDaniel's Do it Center Exterior.jpg
McDaniel's Do it Center Snohomish, Washington

Mike McClelland succeeded Don Wolf as president in 1992. During his tenure, the co-op expanded internationally, primarily in Central and South America and the Caribbean. In 1998, HWI combined with Our Own Hardware, a Minnesota-based regional co-op. As a result of the merger, HWI changed its name to Do it Best Corp. In 2002, Bob Taylor, a former member-owner with stores in Virginia Beach, Virginia, took over as president and CEO and has led the company into new markets supporting commercial/industrial and web-only businesses until his retirement in January 2016. Following Taylor's retirement in early 2016, Dan Starr became the company's fifth president and CEO. [7]

Since 2022, Do it Best's corporate headquarters in Fort Wayne has been located on the Electric Works campus (Building 19 pictured above). Electric Works, Do it Best, Broadway District, SE corner, Fort Wayne, IN 2024-04-12.jpg
Since 2022, Do it Best's corporate headquarters in Fort Wayne has been located on the Electric Works campus (Building 19 pictured above).

As of 2022, Do it Best was the largest privately held company in the state of Indiana. [8] In December 2022, Do it Best relocated its corporate headquarters to the Electric Works campus in Fort Wayne, becoming the anchor tenant operating out of Building 26. [9] In March 2024, United Hardware, a regional hardware cooperative based in Minnesota, agreed to merge with Do it Best. [4] The merger would include 700 store locations, a distribution center in Milbank, SD, and the Hardware Hank brand. [10] The merger was overwhelmingly approved by United Hardware shareholders on April 5, 2024. [11]

In November 2024, Do it Best successfully acquired True Value Company out of bankruptcy for $153 million. The acquisition included inventory, brand rights, and paint manufacturing facility plus over 4,500 True Value store locations bringing the total locations served by Do it Best to over 8,000. [12]

References

  1. ↑ "Corporate Facts". Doitbestcorp.com. Archived from the original on 2014-06-09. Retrieved 2014-06-14.
  2. ↑ Thompson, Lindsey (October 6, 2025). "Do it Best and True Value Report Year End and Q1 Results". Hardware Retailing. Retrieved October 9, 2025.
  3. ↑ "2022 Annual Report" (PDF). Do it Best Corp. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-12-30. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
  4. 1 2 Carroll, Joe (April 11, 2024). "Do it Best merges with Minnesota based hardware distributor". WANE-TV . Archived from the original on April 16, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2025.
  5. ↑ Bell, Amanda (2014-03-21). "Do it Best Opens Retail Service Center in Sikeston, Mo". Hardware Retailing. Archived from the original on 2025-03-25. Retrieved 2025-06-04.
  6. ↑ "Locations | Do it Best". Archived from the original on 2025-05-18. Retrieved 2025-06-04.
  7. ↑ "Our History | Do it Best". Archived from the original on 2022-12-30. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
  8. ↑ Carnes, Terry (June 8, 2023). "Largest Indiana Private Companies". Indianapolis Business Journal . Archived from the original on May 26, 2024. Retrieved May 20, 2024.
  9. ↑ Ivanson, Alyssa (December 5, 2022). "Do it Best moves into Electric Works". WANE-TV . Archived from the original on February 7, 2023. Retrieved October 9, 2025.
  10. ↑ Connection, The Hardware (2024-03-06). "Do it Best, United Hardware to Merge - The Hardware Connection". thehardwareconnection.com. Retrieved 2025-06-04.
  11. ↑ Burke, Tim (April 11, 2024). "Do it Best completes merger". HBS Dealer. Archived from the original on June 21, 2025. Retrieved October 9, 2025.
  12. ↑ Gazette, Sherry Slater | The Journal (2024-11-22). "Do it Best completes $153 million acquisition of True Value". The Journal Gazette . Retrieved 2025-06-04.
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