Williamstown Aubuchon Grand Reopening Marks Company's 117th Year
Will Aubuchon, whose grandfather opened the company's first hardware store 117 years ago on Friday, welcomes the community to the Williamstown reopening. He says he goes to every opening.
The event highlighted the company's core values: safety, doing the right thing, teamwork, commitment to serve, accountability, and growth and change.
President and CEO William E. Aubuchon IV, the fourth generation of the family enterprise, was on hand to congratulate the employees, cut a "chain" ribbon and promise the company's commitment to customers.
"A project like this takes a lot. It takes a lot of strong leadership, who we're going to be here to recognize in a moment. It also takes a really strong culture," he said. "The Aubuchon Company, we like to think of our culture as something that helps us to stay small while we grow big. It's rooted in our purpose to make a difference by serving others."
The store underwent significant renovations, including new floors, fixtures, and decor that took about 10 weeks.
Matthew Mollaun, store manager for the past three years, said the best part of the remodel has been the positive customer reaction.
"Better selection, more complete selections. Everybody's wowed when they come in, who haven't been since before the conversion had started," he said. "I've been in retail my whole life. I've done a few of these with different companies and Aubuchon has definitely stepped up in taking us to the next level of hardware."
Company officials called out a number of officers, managers and store employees who helped with the renovation, as well as representatives from its major vendors Stanley Black and Decker, DeWalt and Benjamin Moore and community representatives.
"We joined the Ace Hardware cooperative about a year and a half ago, and a lot of this wouldn't be possible without the support of Ace," said Josiah Gates, the company's chief growth officer. "So I'd just like to take a moment and thank everyone for all the great work here. And this is a rocket ship full of fuel ready to take off."
Gates pointed to the store being up 200 percent in sales just this week, which got a round of applause. "That's all due to everyone's hard work."
The store carries a wide variety of items including, paint and painting supplies, pet food, bird food and feeders, carpentry tools, home and auto cleaning supplies, landscaping and plant supplies, lawnmowers and snowblowers, patio supplies and grills, rental equipment, coolers and, of course, hardware.
Will Aubuchon's great-grandfather opened the first store in Fitchburg in 1908; it's since grown to more than 100 throughout New England plus other brands in the Northeast. In 2023, it teamed up with Ace Hardware. Headquartered in Westminster, it's stayed a private family business.
"There's a great farmer saying — you're either green and growing or ripe and rotting," said Aubuchon. "We definitely want to be the green and growing to be around a whole other 117 years."
He described the company's continued success to the fourth generation in an era of big box stores and Amazon as a "statistical anomaly."
"Like 2 to 3 percent of businesses make it to the fourth generation, right? So, why is that? And it's a commitment. I mean, there's some luck, but there's a genuine commitment by the company to just keep going and to keep doing what we have always done, which is to do hardware retailing, serve our neighbors," he said.
"Without that commitment, things fall apart, you start thinking short term and we're thinking long term. ... We're just thinking a whole 'nother generation."
The grand opening runs through Sunday with sales and giveaways and a cookout with No Paws Left Behind animal shelter.
Tags: hardware, reopening, ribbon cutting,
