Q&A with William E. Aubuchon III, CEO of Aubuchon Hardware
Photo/Christina H. Davis
William E. Aubuchon III,CEO, Aubuchon Hardware
Westminster-based W.E. Aubuchon Hardware was founded 100 years ago by a 23-year-old French Canadian immigrant with a fifth-grade education. Today, the hardware store chain has grown to include 128 stores and vibrant web site (hardwarestore.com). Here, William E. Aubuchon III, the current CEO of the family-owned company, talks about the history of the retail chain as well as the future.
>> You currently have 128 stores. How does that compare with past store levels?
It fluctuates. What we’re going through right now is a period of organic growth. That means we’re enhancing the store base, but we’re also doing acquisitions. We’ve done 22 acquisitions since 2002. As a matter of fact, two are going to be opened up in two weeks in New Hampshire.
>> What’s been Aubuchon Hardware’s experience over the last three or four months, during which the economy has really been in a tail spin?
Coming into the middle of October we were actually showing a same-store sales gain of 2 percent. Since the middle of October all of that has disappeared. We caught up with what has visited other stores earlier in the year. However, we are a weather affected company. Last year, December was a snowy month and we’re the kind of company that benefits from that.
>> Where are you going to end up when the books are closed on 2008?
This year we’re going to be below budget as far as top line is concerned. However, we’ve done a good job of tweaking up our gross margin and we’ve done a good job of expense control. As a result we are going to get our bottom line positive number.
>> Do you think Aubuchon’s focus on do-it-yourselfers as opposed to larger contractors helped insulate you from the housing market decline?
Yes, but on the other hand we didn’t participate in the upswing in the housing market. But New England is fortunate in the sense that it has a lot of old housing stock. It just needs attention and that’s what benefits folks like us.
>> What initiatives do you have planned for next year?
We’ve got a multi-pronged approach. We’re going to continue to invest in the store base through a long-term effort to make improvements in our physical locations. On the external side we’ve got the acquisition program, which I think is going to serve us even more opportunities next year. The third piece in the puzzle is continued improvement and investment in hardwarestore.com and our in-store kiosk programs. And lastly, and the most important thing as far as I’m concerned, is talent management.
>> Why is talent management so important to you?
The biggest challenge, the biggest enterprise risk any company has in my view, is human capital. The only way you’re going to have a future is home growing it — which is what we’re doing — or looking outside, but that’s much more risky. By looking inward, when the time comes, the next group of leaders can step in. I probably spend at least 20 to 25 percent of my time on that.
>> What was the management lesson that you had to learn the hard way that you try to share with people?
I can see that we should have been sharper a long time ago on technology. We’ve been on the slow uptake as far as technology and it’s taken us a while and we’re not there yet by a long shot.
>> If your grandfather, the founder of the company, were alive today, what would he say about W.E. Aubuchon Hardware?
If he walked in here today, he’d be happy. He’d be surprised that his company is 100 years old and he’d be very happy about that.
Check out this video clip from the WBJ's interview with William E. Aubuchon III.
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