Most retailers spend years trying to double their business.
Do it Best did it overnight.
Speaking live from the Vusion Podcast Studio at the Global DIY-Summit 2026 in Amsterdam, Do it Best President and CEO Dan Starr reflected on one of the most significant moves in the home improvement industry over the past year: the acquisition of True Value.
The deal instantly transformed the scale of the organization. What had been a network of roughly 4,500 locations suddenly became an enterprise serving approximately 9,000 locations around the world. But as Dan made clear throughout the conversation, acquiring a company and realizing the value of an acquisition are two very different things.
That distinction became the thread that tied the entire discussion together.
While acquisitions often generate headlines, the hard work begins long after the announcement. Systems need to be consolidated. Supply chains need to be aligned. Teams need to come together around a common vision. And perhaps most importantly, leaders need to move with urgency.
As Dan put it:
“There’s a sense of urgency in bringing together those organizations in order to realize the value of what we acquired.”
Growth Is Exciting. Integration Is Where Value Is Created
The official theme of this year’s Global DIY-Summit is “Accelerating in a New Global Reality.”
For Dan, acceleration has taken on a very specific meaning.
Since acquiring True Value in late 2024, Do it Best has been focused on integrating two organizations that were remarkably similar in size and complexity. Both operated large wholesale distribution networks. Both served independent hardware retailers. Both had extensive supply chain operations and decades of industry experience.
On paper, the strategic rationale made perfect sense.
In practice, bringing those operations together requires an enormous amount of work.
When Dan described the integration process, there was no talk of secret formulas or breakthrough management techniques. His answer was refreshingly straightforward.
“It’s just hard work.”
The reality of integration is often much less glamorous than the strategy behind it.
Technology platforms need to be migrated. Vendor relationships need to be aligned. Product assortments need to be consolidated. Distribution networks need to be optimized.
What sounds simple in theory becomes significantly more complex when you’re operating at this scale.
Dan shared one example that perfectly captures his mindset.
“It grinds the gears of people within our organization to be running two trucks over the same miles.”
That frustration is not about transportation. It’s about opportunity.
Every duplicate process represents a chance to improve efficiency. Every overlapping cost represents value waiting to be unlocked.
The challenge is moving quickly enough to capture it.
The Hard Part Is Not Strategy. It’s Execution
One of the most interesting moments in the conversation came when Chris asked if there was any secret sauce to making a large acquisition successful.
Dan’s answer was telling.
There isn’t one.
Success comes from relentlessly working through thousands of operational decisions and making progress every day.
Unlike many transformation stories, this isn’t about reinventing the business model. Do it Best has been successfully operating wholesale distribution networks for decades.
As Dan explained, the company already knows how to do this work well.
The challenge is not figuring out what success looks like.
The challenge is getting there faster.
That confidence allows the organization to stay focused on execution rather than second-guessing strategy.
It also creates a healthy impatience.
When leaders know what the end state should look like, duplicate systems, duplicate costs, and duplicate processes become difficult to tolerate.
The objective becomes clear: simplify, consolidate, and move forward.
Culture Turned Out To Be Easier Than Expected
Interestingly, the biggest surprise during the integration process wasn’t operational.
It was cultural.
Dan admitted that one of his biggest concerns going into the acquisition was how two longtime competitors would come together under one organizational culture.
That concern seemed reasonable.
After all, many of these businesses had spent years competing against one another. Some retailers were located in the same communities. In some cases, they were literally across the street from each other.
But what Dan found was something different.
Many True Value retailers and employees were looking for leadership, stability, and a renewed sense of direction.
After years under private equity ownership and the uncertainty that followed, there was a strong appetite to reconnect with the cooperative values that had historically defined the business.
Dan described being able to point to the original culture that helped make True Value successful and explain that Do it Best shared many of those same principles.
Rather than creating resistance, that message resonated.
As Chris summarized during the conversation, many people were simply “hungry for leadership and vision.”
Dan agreed.
That cultural alignment ended up being easier than he expected and became one of the factors helping accelerate the broader integration effort.
Reintroducing True Value To A New Generation
Earlier in the day, Dan took the main stage at the Global DIY-Summit to deliver a keynote titled “Reinventing a Legacy Brand for the Next Generation.”
But during our conversation, he reframed that idea in an interesting way.
The goal is not really reinvention.
It’s reintroduction.
When Do it Best acquired True Value, they discovered something encouraging. Despite years of limited investment in consumer marketing, the brand still maintained approximately 74% unaided awareness.
That level of recognition is incredibly rare.
At the same time, it revealed an opportunity.
For more than a decade, the brand had not invested significantly in advertising or targeted outreach. As a result, many younger consumers entering homeownership today have little familiarity with the True Value name.
The challenge is not convincing people who already know the brand.
The challenge is introducing it to people who don’t.
Dan used a humorous analogy to explain the divide.
“If you know Pat Summerall and Paul Harvey, you know our brand.”
For younger generations, however, those references mean very little.
That’s where the opportunity lies.
Rather than trying to reinvent what made True Value successful, the company is focused on helping Millennials and Gen Z understand how the brand can help them navigate homeownership and DIY projects with greater confidence.
As Dan explained:
“We want them to know who we are, and we want them to know here’s how we can help you.”
That message feels particularly relevant as younger homeowners increasingly seek guidance, inspiration, and expertise rather than simply products.
Supporting Independent Retailers In An Omnichannel World
The conversation also explored what omnichannel means when your customer base consists of thousands of independently owned retailers.
Dan’s answer revealed a lot about how Do it Best approaches innovation.
Everything begins with the member.
“If it doesn’t work for them, why are we doing it?”
That philosophy serves as a useful filter for every major investment.
Independent retailers face growing pressure to meet modern customer expectations. Consumers want ecommerce. They want digital convenience. They want information instantly. They expect retailers to be available wherever and whenever they choose to engage.
The challenge is that most independent retailers do not have the resources to build sophisticated digital ecosystems on their own.
That is where scale becomes an advantage.
Rather than asking thousands of retailers to solve the same problem independently, Do it Best provides centralized capabilities that members can leverage under their own local brands.
One example is ecommerce.
The company recently rolled out a new ecommerce platform that allows retailers to offer a modern online shopping experience without having to build and maintain the technology themselves.
Customers interact with the retailer’s brand.
Behind the scenes, Do it Best handles much of the complexity.
The result is a better customer experience and a stronger competitive position for independent retailers.
It’s a practical example of how scale can be used to support entrepreneurship rather than replace it.
The Bigger Takeaway
One of the most valuable lessons from this conversation has very little to do with acquisitions.
It’s about leadership during periods of transformation.
Many organizations focus heavily on strategy.
They spend months debating what should happen next.
What stood out in Dan’s approach was his focus on execution.
The strategy is important.
But once the direction is clear, progress comes from action.
Removing complexity.
Eliminating inefficiency.
Making decisions.
Moving forward.
Those principles sound simple.
At scale, they become incredibly difficult.
And incredibly valuable.
The acquisition of True Value doubled the size of Do it Best almost overnight.
The Bottom Line
But as Dan Starr made clear in Amsterdam, growth itself is not the achievement.
The achievement is what comes next.
Building one culture.
Simplifying operations.
Supporting independent retailers.
Reintroducing a trusted brand to a new generation of homeowners.
That work is still underway.
And it may ultimately prove more impressive than the acquisition itself.
To catch more conversations from the Global DIY-Summit 2026 in Amsterdam, follow Omni Talk Retail on LinkedIn or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Thank you to Vusion for supporting Omni Talk Retail’s live coverage from the Global DIY-Summit 2026, and thank you to our listeners for joining us during the event.
Be careful out there,
Chris Walton and the Omni Talk Team
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Omni Talk® is the retail blog for retailers, written by retailers. Chris Walton founded Omni Talk® in 2017 and have quickly turned it into one of the fastest growing blogs in retail.