Adam Busscher elected to North American Retail Hardware Association

Adam Busscher was recently elected as third vice-chairman to the board of directors of the North American Retail Hardware Association (NRHA) at the organization’s annual meeting in Las Vegas, Nev.
Founded in 1900 by a group of retailers, the North American Retail Hardware Association is a not-for-profit trade association whose mission is to help hardware stores, home centers and lumberyards in the U.S. and Canada become better and more profitable retailers.
Owner of Picton Home Hardware, Busscher grew up working in his father’s hardware store, but it wasn’t until after college that he really fell in love with the business. He went to work for the family electrical contracting company, a sister business to the hardware store. After a couple of years there, he decided to come back to work for the store and bought the business in 1994.

Busscher has been forward thinking and has responded to demographic trends in the area by retooling his product offering to meet his customer’s changing needs. He has tripled the size of his store with a new 35,000-square-foot store at a new location in town. He also plans to include a 9,000-square-foot lumber and building materials warehouse.

Busscher invests heavily in training his staff and promoting good customer service. Using the NRHA training resources provided by his wholesaler Home Hardware, he sends employees to Home Hardware’s semi-annual market to attend seminars and visit vendors. He also brings in a variety of other product knowledge seminars to the store. He’s been aggressive in advertising, and his wife Chrissy has been featured in Home Hardware’s national television advertising. He is also part of Home Hardware’s National Advertising Committee.

Other NRHA officers include: chairman of the board Linda Johnson of Western Springs, Ill.; executive vice chairman William Barnhart of Mt. Angel, Ore.; first vice chairman Jerry Meis of Iowa City, Iowa; and second vice chairman Gary Copeland of Rising Sun, Ind. Tom Ruedisueli of Oscoda, Mich., is immediate past president. With Busscher, these officers make up the association’s Executive Board.
In addition to the officers, NRHA directors include: Anthony Brookhouse of Whitinsville, Mass.; James Cabirac of Cut Off, La.; Taylor Comstock of Billings, Mont.; and Megan Menzer of Cherryvale, Kan.

Governed by a board of independent hardware retailers, NRHA fulfills its mission by providing information, communication, training programs and networking opportunities for the industry it serves. Each month NRHA publishes Hardware Retailing magazine, which reaches more than 36,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada.