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CLEVELAND, Ohio – LESCO continues growing. This week, the company announced it opened three new locations as it continues on a path to add 25 to 35 new LESCO Service Centers® annually. These additions bring the number of Service Center locations to 294 in 39 states. The newest stores are in Norwalk, Conn.; Easton, Md.; and Urbancrest, Ohio.
The announcement comes on the heels of four other recent Service Center openings, four of which were announced last week. LESCO has now opened 20 new Service Centers in 2005, after opening a total of 21 in 2003 and 27 in 2004.
“LESCO has accelerated its growth by opening almost 70 new Service Centers across the country in the last three years, and we are certainly not done” noted Michael DiMino, LESCO’s president and chief executive officer. “We know that our customers rely on us for convenience, and opening these new locations will make it easier for our customers to do business while also allowing new customers to use LESCO’s quality products.”
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LESCO has been opening new Service Centers in brand new markets while also targeting locations that increase market density and better serve current customers. LESCO says the newest Service Centers announced are more examples of how the company’s customers benefit from new locations in areas where the company already has a strong presence.
“There’s more going on here than just another store opening,” LESCO’s Director of Marketing Bob West told Lawn & Landscape. “This is about the biggest distributor continuing to grow. As we watch our same-store sales increase, some Service Centers just get too big and you can’t support the business out of just one store. When that happens, we try to open another store nearby, which will cut the customer base for each store in half, but allows each store to grow faster.”
West says increasing density is good news for customers, as well. “If we have a big store it means that our customers are getting good service, but that a lot of people are driving farther than they’d like to get there,” West explains. “Ideally, we look to open branches every 25 miles or so in markets that make sense, so our customers can get the service they expect without driving as far to get it.”
West says LESCO has the company opening at least seven more Service Centers before the end of 2005. The new Norwalk location is the 10th Service Center in Connecticut, while the Easton location is the 11th in Maryland and the Urbancrest location is the 17th location in Ohio.
“Today, LESCO is the nation’s largest lawn care, golf and pest control products supplier, and we are committed to continuing to grow in this fashion so that we can better serve our customers,” noted DiMino. “The recent additions of Chuck Denny as senior vice president of sales and store operations as well as Michael Poole as vice president of real estate and store planning strengthen our business further, especially as we continue implementing our Commercial Retail Strategy to better serve our customers.”
To locate a LESCO Service Center near you, visit www.lesco.com