much on references to primary sources . please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources . august 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message do it best corp. type retailers cooperative industry retail founded 1945 as hardware wholesalers inc. headquarters fort wayne indiana number of locations thousands of member owned locations throughout the united states and 52 other countries 1 products 67000 1 revenue 3.02 billion 1 number of employees 1 445 1 website doitbest.com do it best corp. formerly known as hardware wholesalers inc. hwi is a member owned hardware lumber and building materials cooperative based in fort wayne indiana . do it best corp. is the second largest co op in the industry with sales of 3.02 billion in fy 2016 . 2 do it best corp. does not mandate store identities so member owners may or may not display the do it best brand name in their businesses . history edit hwi was founded by arnold gerberding in 1945 in fort wayne indiana with the investments of 100 independent business owners in illinois indiana michigan and ohio . gerberding used the co op model so hwi members could get better volume pricing from vendors by buying together rather than on their own . independent hardware stores became members of the cooperative and its sole shareholders as well . the first warehouse facility opened in 1948 and hwi added a private truck delivery system in 1955 . when gerberding retired in 1967 hwi had more than 600 members and 35 million in sales . don wolf succeeded gerberding and opened hwi s first distribution center outside of fort wayne in cape girardeau missouri . today there are eight centers located across the us . wolf also launched the do it center store design concept which aimed to modernize the hardware shopping experience with more consumer friendly colors and signage . mike mcclelland succeeded don wolf as president in 1992 . during his tenure the co op expanded internationally primarily in central and south america and the caribbean . in 1998 hwi combined with our own hardware a minnesota based regional co op . as a result of the merger hwi changed its name to do it best corp. in 2002 bob taylor a former member owner with stores in virginia beach virginia took over as president and ceo and has led the company into new markets supporting commercial industrial and web only businesses until his retirement in january 2016 . taylor embraced the pace of technology development and change at do it best corp. under his leadership the company harnessed the positive impact technology can have on operations and members retail business . taylor led the launch or expansion of numerous key member focused programs during his tenure while also strengthening the co op s outstanding financial standing and overseeing an unprecedented period of industry leading member rebates more than 1 billion distributed in just a decade . following taylor s retirement in early 2016 dan starr became the company s fifth president and ceo . starr continues to exemplify and uphold the do it best philosophy of serving others as we would like to be served . after serving in a variety of leadership roles over the previous decade including several years as the executive vice president and chief operating officer starr is a champion for the very special culture do it best corp. enjoys . mcdaniel s do it center snohomish washington references edit a b c d corporate facts . doitbestcorp.com . retrieved 2014 06 14 . 2016 annual report pdf . external links edit www.doitbest.com do it best corp. find a store near you retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title do it best & oldid 744288631 categories hardware stores of the united statesretailers cooperativescompanies established in 1945companies based in fort wayne indianacompanies based in indianaallen county indianahidden categories articles lacking reliable references from august 2014all articles lacking reliable referencespages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 14 october 2016 at 09 08 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view