Merging Streams: Q&A with True Value President Dent Johnson
True Value president Dent Johnson shares how Do it Best and True Value are stabilizing operations and building momentum for independent retailers.
In less than a year since the Do it Best acquired True Value, operations have stabilized, distribution streamlined and vendor relationships rebuilt, reports True Value president Dent Johnson. Now, with integration moving ahead of schedule, the focus is shifting toward delivering unified systems, pricing, merchandising and branding that serve independent retailers with renewed power and flexibility.
Johnson brings more than 20 years of leadership experience in merchandising, operations and supply chain management at both Do it Best and Michelin. Since joining Do it Best in 2018, he has risen through the ranks—from vice president of merchandising to executive vice president of operations—before stepping into his current role in 2024.
In this exclusive Q&A, Johnson reflects on the lessons of stabilization, progress toward integration and what lies ahead for the unified entity.
It’s been nearly a year since Do it Best announced its intent to purchase True Value. How would you describe the stabilization of operations since then? Have logistics of the distribution system gelled, and what lessons has everyone learned?
We all know that was my favorite word at the beginning of this process—stabilization—and I’m proud to say we accomplished that and the tide has definitely turned. It certainly hasn’t been an easy or painless journey, but it has been rewarding. The past nine months or so have been marked by tough decisions to get the business in better condition to cost-effectively serve our retailers.
Sometimes the timing and process changes were less than ideal, but they have been critical to building our foundation as we prepare for growth. For example, we essentially closed five warehouses in 60 days, removing more than $200 million in future operational costs from the business. At the end of 2024, we had a collective 21 distribution centers across Do it Best and True Value. That was obviously not sustainable or necessary, so we focused on what mattered most to our stores, with the least disruption possible, and moved forward. That is the primary takeaway so far—our intention behind every decision has been putting our members, retailers and dealers first. What is best for them and the health of our cooperative is where we start.
How have you managed vendor relationships since the True Value acquisition, particularly considering the challenges following the bankruptcy? What concrete steps have you taken to restore confidence with retailers and vendors?
It was very, very difficult in the beginning. Many vendors were hurt and surprised by the bankruptcy, so it was an emotional situation at that time. Do it Best stepped up to [quell] a lot of turbulence in the industry and to preserve real independence for our 9,000 stores, and once our vendor community saw that and realized we’re going to drive this business forward, they pretty quickly got behind us.
The business was back on track in the spring after our entire leadership team and so many others had one-on-one conversations with every single vendor we needed to. There are a good number of common vendors between Do it Best and True Value, so becoming one stronger entity reinforced those relationships. It has also opened doors with vendors who may have been solely with one company or the other, allowing us to expand what we offer our stores. Our drop ship program is back online and growing, and we’ve sharpened wholesale pricing across thousands of SKUs so retailers can win at retail. True Value was able to get back up on its feet relatively quickly earlier this year and we’ve been focused on strategic partnerships and growth ever since.
What have you learned from the True Value side that could contribute to Do it Best as a whole?
The real value in a deal like this is that True Value had a lot of excellent things going on despite the financial situation. Both Do it Best and True Value leadership teams continue to learn, compare and implement best practices across the two companies, and all our stores are going to benefit from that ongoing work. We’re already using data and advanced analytics capabilities to drive business intelligence and decision making, along with the streamlining of our operations I already mentioned.
Each company has been doing certain things really, really well, and when we pull all that together, we are a powerful force. Our vision is simple: one vision, one team, one company. We continue to support two powerful national brands with Do it Best and True Value as we work to integrate into one company with aligned systems, teams, catalogs and pricing strategies. The end goal is to give members and retailers better buying power through consistent cost-effective operations, the right product assortments and the most flexible and robust branding options in the industry.
What’s next for your integration timeline?
We’re intently focused on operations that directly affect our stores. Early in the acquisition, we shared that our approach was to operate both companies—Do it Best and True Value—as separate entities for the short term as we prioritized stabilizing True Value, then worked to identify integrations along the way.
What’s been interesting is how quickly that timeline has evolved. After restoring True Value’s core operations, other areas became obvious points of integration; for example, parts of our Merchandising team, or parts of our Marketing team. We are aligning teams internally to best serve our members and retailers, driven by the needs of the business. From there, we can collaboratively tackle major projects like SKU harmonization and integrating back-end systems to be easier to do business with. We originally shared an estimate of 12 to 18 months for most operations to be integrated, and our teams are well ahead of schedule in many areas.
What is the vision for the True Value brand?
We’re revitalizing the True Value brand at every touch point. We’re investing in the entirety of how it shows up online, at the store level, in media and so much more. At the Fall Market, we relaunched Destination True Value with a completely new store design, along with a coming rebuild of our TrueValue.com e-commerce platform to drive foot traffic and sales online and in-store. We’re also preparing a national brand awareness push, designed not just to strengthen True Value but to put our retailers and their teams front and center, especially with younger generations.
What excites you about what’s ahead?
When I look back at everything we’ve accomplished in such a short amount of time, I’m incredibly proud of the progress we’ve made and even more excited about where we’re headed. We’ve stabilized operations, rebuilt trust with our vendors and begun integrating best practices that make us stronger together than either company could have been on its own. Most importantly, we’ve stayed true to our mission of putting our members and retailers first in every decision. The momentum is real, and while there’s still plenty of hard work ahead, we’re well ahead of schedule and building a foundation that will support growth for decades to come. This is just the beginning of what I believe will be one of the most exciting chapters in the history of Do it Best and True Value.
