The Moore’s deal, which closed on Nov. 1, 2004, included all of Moore’s operating systems and back office staff so that while the stores were operating under the Strober banner, shifting to new systems was not as urgent as with the TCY acquisitions. Stores were transitioned to Strober’s systems over time, individually or in small groups.
Though management was key to researching and planning out the acquisitions of the two new companies, Strober executives also are quick to share credit with employees further down the line. Strober staff members volunteered to help train employees from the acquired yards, an effort that also helped the Strober employees feel more involved. “It wasn’t the company expanding on some corporate, financial basis,” says Marino. “It was the company expanding and each and every one of their careers was directly impacted by it. So there was a real excitement about it through the company, as there is today.”
According to John McElderry, vice president of operations, part of the success also stems from the dedication of Strober, TCY, and Moore’s employees who worked in teams to evaluate operations areas, such as payroll and IT, and make recommendations for how the companies would come together during each acquisition. “By giving opportunities for people from the companies to work together, they get to learn about each other and to realize that maybe they’re not that different from each other,” he says.
Both TCY and Moore’s had centralized operations before the acquisition, but now operate under Strober’s decentralized structure, a system that not only allows local-level decision-making that benefits end customers, but also helped existing Strober yards to continue with business as usual during the integrations.
Along with decentralized operations, Marino says much of the acquisition success also can be attributed to the dealer’s access to capital through a long-standing partnership with Fidelity Strategic Investments and to recent enhancements in senior management that increased the depth and number of people while making positions more specialized. “Our philosophy is always ‘people first,’” he says. “You can’t do anything in my opinion unless you have the right people to go get the job accomplished.”
