AHSG no longer flying under the radar

Roswell, Ga.—Back in 2000, Bruce Weber founded the American Home Surfaces Group (AHSG), an alliance of independent floor covering retailers, followed by Commercial USA, which comprises commercial flooring contractors. Nearly 25 years later, AHSG has expanded to 270 members representing well over 400 locations, while Commercial USA counts 190 contractors among its members. (There is an overlap of about 90 who are part of both groups.) About a year ago, Tony Wright came over from Dal-Tile to succeed Weber as president, and Wright has big growth plans for the group. He recently sat down with FCNews co-publisher Steven Feldman for an overview in advance of the AHSG/Commercial USA convention in Naples on Sept. 22.

What separates AHSG from other groups?

Our members are not looking to have a store in a box. The other organizations do a good job of providing private-label merchandising and a secondary brand name for the dealer. Our members aren’t interested in that. They are more independently minded, and we cater to that. We don’t private label products, tell our members what displays they must have or dictate the brands they sell or what name needs to be on their store. Our supplier partners spend a lot of money to build their brands, to build an identity—and we support that. We partner with those suppliers in a way to emphasize the brands they have in our member stores. That is a unique approach.

Why do you think retailers join AHSG?

There are many reasons. We have partnered with the industry’s best suppliers, and we co-invest with our supplier partners and members to make sure our members have the latest merchandising and displays in their stores. We understand this is a fashion industry, and we want our member showrooms to reflect that with the most up-to-date merchandising. We are going to underwrite and support them with our suppliers to make sure that happens. Also, AHSG provides our members a forum of similar businesses with whom they can network on best practices, products or technologies to improve their business. AHSG has regional vice presidents whose responsibilities include facilitating product knowledge training with our supplier partners in member stores so RSAs can sell their products more confidently and competently.

Do you negotiate pricing?

Negotiating pricing with suppliers is not a core function for AHSG. We certainly will assist on an individual basis when members ask, but we don’t have national pricing agreements for two reasons: One, there are other financial incentives that our members benefit from as members of AHSG. Second, we feel they can better negotiate pricing themselves while leveraging the buying power of a large national alliance. We will participate to bring the leverage, but we don’t have national pricing. 

What else do you help with?

Website development, social media marketing and traditional marketing. Room visualization has been a big focus, and we have partnered with Roomvo. We have other technology support, whether it’s their ERP system, point of sale, inventory or lead management software. They get discounts if they use any of our aligned partners with those products. On the commercial side, we have relationships with some technology partners as well. Again, our objective is to provide as many benefits as we can. One of the things I’ve been doing since I joined is trying to identify those technology partners that are going to help our members run their businesses more efficiently and effectively. Having been on the dealer side of the business, I know that oftentimes the owner is so focused on running his business that he doesn’t have time to investigate what companies or products and services can help facilitate improved efficiencies. So, we’re trying to bring those to them, and they can make their own decisions whether they want to adopt that technology or product. 

How else do you help them with marketing?

We work with our supplier partners on promotions that they can take to their customers. And we help them do the creative on the marketing.

Do you work with the suppliers to do special promotions a few times a year?

Absolutely. And one of the things I’m focusing on is creating a calendar where we have a more structured approach and cadence with our suppliers so it’s less ad hoc in the timing of those.

You’ve gained 25 members in 2024. 

Yes, and I have to give credit to our regional VPs: Rick Willoughby, Jim Dunn, Tom Facca and Jeff Starr. They do a great job of promoting our alliance and recruiting new members. The 25 new members we have added this year have 39 locations.

What do you think attracted them to AHSG vs. some of the other groups?

I think it is all the things we have talked about, and our regional VPs play a key role. Some examples of their key objectives are: one, they are maintaining relationships with our existing members and making sure our supplier relationships are strong with those members. Second is training, educating and facilitating product knowledge meetings. The third is recruiting. And in their recruiting efforts, they explain who we are, who our supplier partners are, the breadth of our reach in terms of membership and what we offer. If they’re willing to join us and we believe they’re a good fit, then it’s a pretty straightforward process to enroll them.

You don’t make any demands on them? Nothing that is mandatory?

Nothing is mandatory. But we make it very clear that the strength of our group is based on our members taking advantage of the partnerships we have with our suppliers and growing that business. The ultimate end is about growing business. That’s what our suppliers are looking for and that’s what our members are looking for.

Who are some of your biggest suppliers?

Shaw, Mohawk, Roppe and Dal-Tile are the largest suppliers. Dal-Tile is our oldest supplier. When Bruce [Weber] established this business in 2000, Dal-Tile was the first supplier that said, ‘Hey, we will support you if you start your own group.’ And as a result, we have consistently grown our Daltile, American Olean and Marazzi business over the last 24 years. We are exclusive in that category with Dal-Tile.

We’ve recently partnered with Southwind. Again, we are trying to be strategic with respect to the suppliers we bring on, and I like where Southwind fits in the market. I think they’ve got a great selection of products that fit our members very nicely. We’ve also recently partnered with Happy Feet and AHF Products. We have 40 suppliers in our alliance, and they are strong supporters of our members.

What about in wood and laminate? 

Mullican, Shaw and Johnson Hardwood lead in the wood category. On the laminate side, Lions Floor, Happy Feet and Mohawk. We’ve really partnered strongly with Mohawk and RevWood.

How do you delineate your responsibilities with Joe Weber? 

I am president and Joe is CEO/COO. Joe wears many hats and handles everything from operations to supplier/member relations for the organization. My focus is brand development. I want to further expand our relationships both on our member and supplier sides, develop new and existing programs, making sure we’re communicating with all stakeholders, focusing on elevating our programs and providing the best experience for our members. And that is our brand messaging going out.

What is that brand messaging right now?

In its most elemental form, our objective is to bring more benefit to our members for them to run their businesses every day in a more effective and efficient manner and more value to our suppliers so they recognize what our members are doing in terms of growth and focusing on their products and their brands in their stores.

Do you offer any type of training to the dealers?

We do not have a formalized training program like a university. What we do have is four regional VPs that are tasked to do product knowledge training in partnership with our suppliers because a retail sales associate will sell what he knows and is comfortable with. We also partner and support training organizations like NTCA, FCICA, WFCA, FCEF and contribute to the membership fees.

So there are no private labels, no store name. Is it safe to say you’re like the Intel Inside the HP computer?

I’ve never thought of it that way. We really have flown under the radar, but that’s not our objective. We’ve been so focused on growing our suppliers and partners’ brands over the years. We want to have a more visible and broadly known identity. 

Shifting over to commercial, what is different about your Commercial USA members? 

Our members tend to have a greater proportion of negotiated or discretionary work as opposed to strictly doing specified. That’s very valuable to our supplier partners because they’re driving the specifications in the A&D marketplace, and they need a flooring contractor partner that will drive that negotiated business. That’s important. Our members are working in all commercial segments installing all categories of flooring, ensuring proper surface preparation, expert installation with minimal claims.

Within Commercial USA, how big is the typical member?

It ranges from several hundred-million-dollar companies to a small flooring contractor that maybe is doing between $3 million and $5 million a year.

And what value do you bring to the flooring contractor?

Again, a lot of it is being able to strengthen the relationship they have with our aligned suppliers. The other is growth. Our approach on the commercial side is similar to the residential side. We want to have the right supplier base and a breadth of suppliers, but we don’t want to be stacked so deep that we lose our focus. Also, as I discussed before, we endeavor to bring technology partners to our members that will improve their operational efficiencies.

Are there any networking opportunities for members?

We have an advisory board for both American Home Surfaces Group and Commercial USA. And those advisory board members invite our members to reach out on a consultative basis. They can discuss business, best practices, etc. That certainly exists at our conventions as well. Our members also work well together if they need assistance, perhaps on a project outside their service area. But going forward, that is high on my priority list to develop a more structured networking program for our members.

Goals and objectives over the next 12 months?

We will continue to identify the dealers and flooring contractors that would be good fits for our membership, recruit them and bring them into our alliances. We will also identify some additional supplier partners that would be good fits. Second thing is focusing on technology. Having spent 25 years on the dealer/contractor side of the business, I know often you get so focused in your day-to-day operations that you don’t have time to identify and investigate the technology companies that will help improve your business. So I want to focus on that in the next 12 months and bring that in a meaningful way to our membership. Our ultimate objective is to enhance our member and supplier partnerships to deliver growth to both sides. 

How has being on the retail side for 25 years helped you in this new role?

I have lived the life of our dealers. I’ve stood in their shoes. I’ve had to deal with the installation issues they face every day. I’ve dealt with supplier issues. I’ve touched and done virtually everything our members are doing every day. So I can identify with them. And when they share something with me, I recognize very quickly what they’re telling me. And not only on the residential side. I actually cut my teeth on the commercial side of the business beginning in 1990. 

Tell me how your experience on the manufacturing side at Daltile helps members.

It’s insight into understanding what our manufacturing partners value and not getting lost in the superfluous stuff. And knowing how we can partner to really improve those relationships in tangible ways. I’ve been fortunate to see both sides of the fence. AHSG and Commercial USA have been doing this for 24 years, and we have an opportunity to continue to enhance relationships and bring the benefits and value to our member partners in ways that improve both sides. A win-win is what we’re after every day. We’ve successfully done it in the past and we can do it even better tomorrow.