___________________________________________________________________________________ Costello ’ s Ace Hardware
“ We are all equal owners and are all active in the day-to-day operations of the business . My sister is our President ; my brothers occupy the roles of Marketing Director , Merchandising Specialist , District Operations Director , and IT Director . We also have some from the next generation involved too , not in leadership roles just yet , but learning the ropes from their parents as we did from ours .”
While Michael , Jaime , Tim , Dan , Joey , and Bobby have retained their father ’ s hunger for growth , they have changed the company ’ s approach to opening new stores . “ Our early growth has historically been ground-up stores , or
We have ambitious plans to double the business over the next five years and grow our family to more than 75 stores by 2030 ...
in other words , leasing an empty building and building a team from nothing . This was fueled by population growth and changes in competition , which led to the demise of many regional home center brands .
“ However , there aren ’ t nearly as many open markets in the areas we operate , so we have shifted our focus over the past ten years more towards acquisitions of existing stores . Growth through acquisition serves us in two ways . Firstly , it decreases risk . We are not starting from the ground ; we have a team , a customer base , and history , as in many cases we are acquiring businesses that have been around longer than we have .
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