White Cap Breaks New Ground - HD Supply

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Relentless recruiting and training isthe rule, not the exception.“The only way you can grow is tohave great people,” he asserts. “Wefocus all the time on making surewe have great leadership in our localbranches and that they are developingteams under them so we cangrow and expand. That is a veryimportant aspect of our business.”“It is also a good gauge of the kindof leader you are, both in your abilityto hire the right people and surroundyourself with smart people,” Stegemancontinues. “When you do thatyou get smarter yourself. So it isimportant to offer those individualsopportunities to develop professionallyand to take care of their families.You can build a great company whenyou do that.”GREENFIELDS ANDACQUISITIONSFinding that best fit also applies toacquisitions. As the economy recovers,the time is ripe for M&A activity.“Are we looking for acquisitionopportunities? Absolutely. But isthere value there; does it have agood foundation; is it a good fit? Isit in a geography where we want tobe? Is it profitable? We look at allthose things and many more, but thenumber one requirement is – does ithave good, quality people who wantto remain with the business andwork for the new parent company,HD Supply? Sometimes the answeris yes, sometimes it’s no.”“We always look forward towelcoming businesses into the HDSupply family,” adds Joe DeAngelo.“The key things we look for arevalues that match ours — peoplewho are hard-working, have positiveattitudes and who have achieved alevel of competitive greatness. Thosethings align with our culture perfectlyand we believe we can provide a lotof value to teams that can helpus create another generation ofsuccess. ‘Join us!’ is the battle cryI’d like the industry to hear.”In addition to growing into newmarkets, White Cap is also reviewingits territories for greenfield expansionopportunities.“A key question we ask is, ‘Whatmarkets make sense for us to bolton another location an hour or twofrom an existing branch so wecan increase our convenience forCONTINUED ON PAGE 24FEATUREDDISTRIBUTORby Tom Hammelwww.ContractorSupplyMagazine.com AUG | SEP 201223
FEATUREDDISTRIBUTORby Tom Hammelwww.ContractorSupplyMagazine.com AUG | SEP 2012Adjacent to the sales counter, the Traderwall showcases products promoted inWhite Cap’s monthly Contractor Tradermini catalog. White Cap produces 13regional editions of the Trader, which itmails to select customers and hands outin stores and on sales calls.customer pick-up points?’ ” Stegemansays. “Our recent greenfieldstores in Lafayette, La., and Conroe,Texas were both easily bolted ontoexisting networks.”“We have opportunities even inour strongest markets to fill in servicegaps. We want the contractor tothink of White Cap because of therelationships we build with them,our knowledgeable associates, ourprofessional service and our productoffering.”1,000 PERCENTCUSTOMER FOCUSEDTo DeAngelo and Stegeman,the key to successful acquisition isthe same as it is for a successfulcompany, a culture that is completelyfocused on the customer.“We frame our execution around acouple of simple things,” DeAngeloexplains. “First, we are 100 percentfocused on our customer and theurgency of performing perfectly forour customer every day. We haveover 450,000 customers and we sellover one million sku’s.”“AS OWNERS WE FOCUS ON LONG-TERMVALUE CREATION. DURING THE DOWNTURNWE INVESTED MORE IN NEW TALENT THANANY OF OUR COMPETITORS.”— JOE DEANGELO, CEO, HD SUPPLY“Secondly, as owners we focus onlong-term value creation. During thedownturn we invested more in newtalent than any of our competitors,”DeAngelo continues. “John Stegeman,Ian Heller and Ross Ankerare just a few examples, and whatJohn has added to the all-star teamthat Bob Jacoby brought to us withWhite Cap gives us the opportunityto make a real difference in thismarket.”No one wants to endure a painfuldownturn, but HD Supply learnedand adapted. It trimmed its portfolio,selling off those divisions (includingits lumber, plumbing and industrialpipe, valve and fitting businesses)where the company wasn’t eitheralready the number one player orwithin striking distance of becomingthe market leader.“Then we doubled down on ourkey investments and made sure wehad solid strategic growth initiatives,”DeAngelo adds. “We got oursystems in place so we can scaleeffortlessly as the markets return.Those investments are alreadypaying off for us.”Through it all, HD Supply andWhite Cap focused on key customergroups and on developing strategiesto most effectively cultivate eachgroup.Each of the eight businesses in HDSupply has a line-of-business president,who works under the umbrellaof HD Supply. The parent companysupplies financial backing for eachbusiness as needed and is a centralizedcenter for strategic business development,information technology,human resources, legal, marketing,communications and finance functionsfor the whole company.THE RIGHT TOOLFOR THE CUSTOMERThis umbrella system is designedto free up the divisions for what theydo best, focus on key customergroups and on developing strategiesto best appeal to each one.Stegeman sees distinct differencesbetween White Cap’s main customergroups and works to ensure each isserved to the best of the company’sability, while working to bring thebest attributes of each group to theothers.This means building lastingrelationships with traditionalcustomers, providing easy-to-useand comprehensive print offerings tocatalog buyers and paving the Webfor technology-driven buyers.“White Cap has great focus withmedium and large contractors today,but if we’re to do the right job developingour business then we shouldalso be a better distributor for smallercustomers,” Stegeman asserts.“Our job is to build relationships withCONTINUED ON PAGE 2624
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White Cap Breaks New Ground - HD Supply

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