Further aggressive growth

It's more than ten years since foreign retail chains started eyeing the South East Asia region as a potential market for expansion. One of these chains was the US cooperative Do it Best, which now has 3 800 hardware stores affiliated to it and has been operating in the region since 2002.It currently has South East Asian members in seven countries in the region and around 160 stores in all: two in Brunei, one in Cambodia, 16 in Indonesia, ten in Malaysia, 110 in the Philippines and 23 in Singapore, along with two in South Korea, although these typically do not identify as part of that region."These countries have shown a strong interest in retail consultation, store design and product merchandising," says Randy Rusk, communications director at Do it Best's head office in Fort Wayne, Indiana. "These members are eager to bring their operations to a higher level and we help them reach these goals." From the members' point of view, the cooperative model offered by the Americans is attractive on account of the purchasing and price advantages it offers while allowing the retailers their independence. The group's proprietary paint lines among other things play an important role for retailers in goods procurement.Another benefit that local store operators can take advantage of is the cooperative's retailing know-how with regard to store design, layout and merchandising. "In general, modern retailing has been practised in the US longer than it has been in many other countries," Rusk adds, "and our members see a clear benefit in learning from an experienced retailer-focused company like Do it Best Corp."To grow its membership in the region further, Do it Best opened an office in Singapore in 2011. This also gave it an opportunity to become better acquainted with the requirements of local retailers and to address these. The cooperative aims to retain this information flow when the number of members has increased and the regional office is integrated into the headquarters in the USA.

Procurement for the individual members is undertaken via one of Do it Best's eight strategically located US-based retail service centres as well as directly from vendor partners in the US and around the world. The cooperative also has an office in China dedicated to…