One-on-One with Boyden Moore

milestone. That kind of hockeystick growth doesn’t happen in the distribution industry without intense focus on the art and science of moving products from points A to B with military-like precision and efficiency. A late-spring tour of the upstate New York facility as it was preparing to bring its considerable powers online revealed a number of synergies, strategies and tactics that represented the best ideas in distribution, and some of the best practices from existing DCs.

Mark Scanlon, VP of Northeast distribution for Orgill, describes the Rome distribution center as a “team effort.” Not only to get the facility up and running, but to keep it humming. “The phrase you’ll hear us use again and again is ‘miles and footsteps,’” he told HBSDealer. “The idea is to minimize the miles logged bringing product to customers, and the footsteps made by associates here in the building.”

For every redundant mile eliminated and unnecessary footstep avoided — whether that’s footsteps to turn off the lights or shovel the walkway —

Expansion, the pandemic and the power of a handshake.

During the pandemic, Orgill CEO Boyden Moore has kept the lines of communication open with his own distribution team and retail customers. He donned the mask and hit the road. And what he’s heard is a familiar refrain.

“I’ve traveled to all of our DCs for feedback,” he told HBSDealer. “I’ve been to customer stores as well as our own [CNRG] stores, just to see what’s going on out there and talk to people. And recruiting and hiring is the biggest concern I’m hearing. Of course, pricing and commodity costs are on people’s minds, too. So taken altogether, it’s difficult out there right now.”

But Orgill feels it’s up to the postpandemic challenges of serving customers and growing its business. Back in October, the Memphis, Tenn.-based distributor budgeted for a 7% increase in sales in 2021, a bullish projection compared to national home center chains Home Depot and Lowe’s. Since then, “we’ve had a strong first quarter in the books, and a fast start to the second quarter,” he said. “We feel really good.”

Orgill nation will have a chance to feel even better once it convenes in February 2022 for its Dealer Market. The last such event occurred in February of 2020, just before the pandemic shut down much of the country. Since then, Orgill has created successful, virtual buying markets, but there’s more to a market than transactions.

“We haven’t found a good way to replicate shaking somebody’s hand, smiling and seeing each other en masse,” he said. “We’re very excited about our February market. And it will be a new kind of hybrid

Boyden Moore, Orgill president and CEO.

event where we’ll take everything that we’ve learned from these online buying events and roll it into the physical event as well.”

While industry markets have taken a hiatus through the pandemic, consolidation and acquisitions have not. Big retailers are getting bigger. Orgill, which has seen its top 100 accounts grow faster than its total business over the last several years, has alsoo been on the acquisition trail through its Central Network Retail Group (CNRG). Independent dealers will continue to play a significant role in the hardware and building supply space, but the consolidation trend is likely to continue, Moore said.

“Ten years ago, when we started CNRG, there were a lot of people at a point in their ownership where they were considering passing the business to the next generation, and thinking about what’s best for them, for their family and for their business,” he said. “I think those opportunities are still there, and they continue to play out.”

Still, Orgill is temporarily playing a conservative game in terms of recruiting new business. “We have been adding new business this year, but we’ve been trying to do it in a way that doesn’t disrupt our steady improvement of our supply chain or our service levels,” Moore said. (See article on page 26.)

The supply chain challenges exist throughout the hardware and building supply industry, and are “gradually” improving, he said.

One area of Orgill business that’s particularly likely to grow is among pro customers. Orgill serves more than half of the top 100 pro dealers in the industry, he said. And these customers, for varied reasons, have been softer than the consumer business during the last year. Orgill sees an opportunity for this sector to play catch up in 2021 and beyond.

Responding to a question about Orgill’s role in a landscape of coop’s and distributors, Moore turned to the Orgill’s mission — “to help our customers be successful.”

“We are very focused on that mission,” he said. “And I don’t know anyone who does that better than us. We go about it differently because Orgill is not represented as a brand at retail. We’re set up to support that the independents and their brands—however a customer wants to assort and what they think is best for their community. And that’s a big part of what makes us special.”

COVER FEATURE

At 778,000 sq. ft., the Rome, N.Y., distribution center expands Orgill’s total distribution footprint by 17%.

the distributor increases its efficiency and saves dollars.

A short list of innovative features in Rome would include:

Snow management. Beneath the sidewalk is a heating system to prevent ice and snow build up during the brutal upstate New York winters. The roof of the facility is also winterproofed — built to withstand at least 8 feet of snow accumulation.

Long-range barcode scanners. These futuristic lasers shoot a widening laser circle toward barcodes, allowing the DC employee easy access to products on high shelves without climbing a ladder, or without stepping off a forklift.

Reverse osmosis water purification station. This area of the facility helps maintain the long life of the battery-powered fleet of fork lifts of all varieties. The purified water helps extend the life of the hard-working batteries.

VNA system. VNA is Orgill terminology for a space-saving section of the DC with “very narrow aisles” that measure 77 inches in width. That’s just wide enough to allow a specialized forklifts to slide through by coonnecting to a sensor embedded in the concrete floor.

Lighting efficiency. Motionactivated lights ensure efficient energy conservation.

Communication enhancements. Even before one enters the massive working warehouse, the front office areas are equipped with integrated

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Mark Scanlon (left) VP of Northeast distribution for Orgill, oversaw an accelerated opening schedule for the Rome DC. Specialized forklifts (center) operate in VNAs, or Very Narrow Aisles.

flat-screen televisions in the various rooms and work areas, allowing managers to easily share information across the network.

There is no shortage of statistics to describe the Rome facility: 68 dock doors, 24 receiving doors, a 778,000 sq. ft. footprint. But those numbers can only tell part of the story of how Orgill is making use of the space. If one measure the area of the three-level re-pack module, the usable space expands to well over a million sq. ft.

With the addition of Rome, the company operates a system of eight DCs — as far west as Post Falls, Idaho, and as far south as Tifton, Ga. The launch of the Rome, D.C., will bring several benefits to Orgill nation, Moore said. Obviously, it will facilitate deliveries in the fastgrowing Northeastern United States. It will also rellieve pressure on Orgill’s Inwood, W.Va. distribution center, which was bearing the brunt of the pandemic-induced demand from the region. Moore says benefits will also trickle down to the Midwest and South areas through various changes in routing plans.

And those benefits are coming with a sense of urgency.

It hasn’t been an easy environment for operating as a retailer, Moore said. And the same goes for building a distribution center, a task burdened by its own unique supply challenges, such as a shortage of racking or trucks.

“Despite all of the similar supply chain problems that we’ve been dealing with as a supplier, these guys here in Rome have kept this project absolutely on track on an accelerated timeline,” Moore said. “And that’s been amazing.”