Ace Hardware concludes the year up 6.1 per cent

The central office of the American hardware cooperative Ace Hardware ended fiscal 2018 with sales in the order of USD 5.717 bn. This equates to an increase of 6.1 per cent compared with the previous year. Wholesale activities accounted for the majority of sales, growing by 4.9 per cent to USD 5.342 bn. The cooperative's own retail business, currently composed of 123 outlets in the Westlake Ace Hardware chain and the e-commerce start-up The Grommet, which was acquired in 2017, increased sales by 26.3 per cent to USD 375.4 mio.
As of the end of 2018, 5 253 retail outlets worldwide were affiliated to the cooperative, thus 257 or 2.6 per cent more than a year before. Their joint retail sales are much higher but have not been published. Ace has stated that the roughly 3 000 Ace retailers, who share daily retail sales data, have reported an increase in same-store-sales of 2.3 per cent for 2018.