CEO invests heavily in new ‘experiential’ retail
As CEO and fourth-generation owner of First Supply, LLC, Joe Poehling is investing heavily in creating premier buying environments in two primary ways.
The company is a long-time partner with the Kohler Co. in three of its Signature Store locales – Minneapolis, Kansas City and Milwaukee. In 2018, it will collaborate on a fourth location in Detroit.
First Supply also owns and operates 29 Gerhard’s locations around the upper Midwest. Gerhard’s is a consumer-facing retailer founded by Poehling’s father in 1940. Indeed, 120-year-old First Supply is truly a groundbreaker in the industry, having opened its first showroom in 1920, says Poehling. “We think we are the oldest kitchen and bath store in the country.”
In addition to the company’s Gerhard’s and Signature Store locations, the company operates 60-plus supply outlets with 650 employees.
But Poehling isn’t resting on First Supply’s laurels. About 10 years ago the firm began greatly expanding and upgrading all of its showrooms. “We sensed a real change in what drives success into that segment. So we picked up on the whole concept of driving traffic with inspirational design and staffing with people who are capable of offering inspirational design.”
In the past, notes Poehling, showrooms had offered more of a directed sale. “Today the consumer wants to be involved. They want to be in control of what is going into their home in a much greater way,” he says. Anyone who’s visited a Gerhard’s location or one of First Supply’s Signature Store locations understands Poehling’s commitment to this new way of selling and buying.
