More than 5,000 Ace Hardware stores in the USA

Ace Hardware has now opened its 5,000th store belonging to the US-American co-operation in the USA. According to the latest quarterly report, another 200 stores are to join the group later this year.

Wholesale sales at Ace Hardware's headquarters rose by 3.5 per cent in the second quarter compared to the same period last year to USD 2.4556 bn (EUR 2.1992 bn). For the first half of the year as a whole, this represents growth of 1.8 per cent to USD 4.4325 bn (EUR 3.9697 bn).

On a like-for-like basis, however, sales in the USA declined. For the second quarter, the almost 3,800 retailers who share daily retail sales data with the head office reported a 1.7 per cent drop in same-store-sales.

At the end of the quarter, 5,084 stores in the USA were connected to Ace Hardware, 160 more than a year earlier. Worldwide, there were 5,965 locations.