The Orgill team of more than 400 field sales professionals is working to expand by as much as 10 percent during the remainder of 2023.

Boyden Moore, Orgill’s president and CEO, gave a presentation in Dallas as part of the company’s fall online buying event. What follows are some of the highlights of his presentation.

Orgill hit $1 billion in sales in 2006, $2 billion in sales in 2016 and $3 billion in sales in 2020, according to Moore, so the company’s growth rate has been accelerating. “We opened our second distribution center ever in 1995, so it’s a history of 160 years with one distribution center as a regional distributor and just the last 27 years growing into what we are today. Now we have over 13,000 stores in all 50 states, all provinces and territories of Canada and more than 50 additional countries. We’ll have just under $4 billion in sales this year,” he said.

This is a rendering of Orgill’s new 500,000-square foot Concept Center, to be located on its campus in Collierville, Tenn.

Improving the Supply Chain

The company has been growing aggressively over the last 20 years, even more so during the pandemic. “And during these last three years we had the lowest service levels we’ve ever had, dropping to a low of 77.9 percent in 2021,” Moore pointed out. Service levels were up to 86.9 percent in June 2023.

“We’ve made some good progress getting it over 80 percent but have experienced some resistance. We do expect to achieve 90 percent by September and 95 percent by the end of the year. Restoring the dependability of our supply chain has been the number one focus for us the last three years,” he added.

Moore continued: “We think our industry-leading growth is directly driven by intense focus on our mission to help our customers be successful. If our customers are successful, we believe we can be successful. We are constantly challenging ourselves to constantly think of new ways to help our customers be successful.”

He added, “We believe Orgill can be an important part of any independent dealer’s success, even if we’re not your primary distributor. Roughly 32,000 independent dealers make up about half of industry sales. We ship to 35 percent of the industry. We serve over 1,300 Ace stores, over 800 True Value stores and over 400 Do it Best dealers in addition to dealers who have us as their primary distributor.”

Orgill has invested in the newest and most modern distribution network in the industry, Moore pointed out. “We opened our newest DC in Rome, N.Y., in 2021, accelerating plans to open to meet rising demand during the pandemic. We also expanded our Hurricane (Utah) DC and are now replacing our oldest DC in Tifton, Ga., which will be complete in first quarter 2024. These three projects represent over $220 million of investment in our distribution network in just three years. We have invested to ensure we can drive your costs lower to have the most modern distribution network in the industry,” he said.

Adding More Field Salespeople

Orgill’s mission statement is to help its customers be more successful, and one of the key ways they support their customer base is through their industry-leading field sales force.

More than 400 sales professionals serve as business consultants to the retailers they work with, keeping them up to date on the latest industry trends, products and services that can help them grow their operations, according to David Mobley, Orgill executive vice president of sales.

“We really put an emphasis on consultative selling,” Mobley says. “We want our team of sales professionals to serve as an extension of our customers’ businesses—an extra set of eyes and ears to help them find ways to grow and improve their operations.”

Orgill has experienced unprecedented growth over the past three years. To accommodate this growth, Orgill has announced that the company will be making an investment to expand its field sales team by as much as 10 percent.

“As our business has grown and the needs of our customers have grown, we definitely recognize the need to grow our sales team, and that’s exactly what we are working to do in the coming months,” Mobley says.

Continue reading the full article in the September 2023 Issue