“The helpful hardware folks” are having a good year. The largest retailer-owned cooperative in the world, Ace Hardware, of Oak Brook, Ill., yesterday said that it had opened 100 new stores in 2023—and planned to open a further 70 by the end of the year.
Globally, Ace has opened more than 1,100 stores in the past five years, the company said. There are more than 5,800 locally owned Ace hardware stores around the world. Peavey Industries owns the licence for the Ace banner in Canada, where it supplies more than 100 Ace stores.
