Distinguished Service: PRO Group Honors The Bostwick-Braun Company Chairman Bill Bollin with Lifetime of Achievements Award

Naples, Florida, November 3, 2011, PRO Group extended the highest honors to Bill Bollin, chairman and CEO of The Bostwick-Braun Company, by presenting him with a Lifetime of Achievements Award. The award ceremony, held November 3 at the 2012 Executive Planning Conference, acknowledged Bollin’s business accomplishments since joining the Toledo, Ohio-based The Bostwick-Braun Company in 1970.

Bollin, who has truly dedicated his life to The Bostwick-Braun Company, knows the business from nearly every angle. He began working in the warehouse, later moving on to shipping, office support, data processing, purchasing, management, all the way to his position, today, as chairman.

Upon learning about the award, Bollin said that, while grateful, the honor belongs to the entire company, and not just him. “I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to work with a fantastic group of people at Bostwick-Braun. Those folks are not just my co-workers, they’re also fellow owners of The Bostwick-Braun Company,” said Bollin. “The success that our organization has enjoyed over the years is a tribute to the hard work, dedication and, innovation of the whole Bostwick-Braun family. This award belongs to each and every one of them as much as it does to me.”

Bollin added that PRO Group and PRO programs have also played a role in the success of The Bostwick-Braun Company. “The PRO stores program has been a cornerstone of our dealer division ever since I joined the company in 1970,” said Bollin. “It has served Bostwick-Braun and our retailers well over the years and helped us to be ‘last-men-standing’ in a highly consolidated industry. Personally, PRO has given me the opportunity to know and network with so many of the great individuals that have made their careers in this wonderful industry.”

Steve Synnott, president and CEO of PRO Group, presented the award and said that Lifetime of Achievements awards are often associated with retirement. In this case, however, retirement is not looming. Rather, PRO Group simply wanted to recognize Bollin’s continuing impact while he is still at the helm of The Bostwick-Braun Company.

Synnott credited Bollin for shaping the culture at The Bostwick-Braun Company. “The culture at Bostwick-Braun has been molded as much by Bill Bollin as any other individual. The culture is can-do, the culture is thrifty, the culture demands careful analysis and thoughtful implementation,” said Synnott.

He went on to add that that very culture has had an enormous impact on the success of The Bostwick-Braun Company. “Bill’s work ethic and drive sets the tone in this ‘do-whatever-it-takes’ culture,” said Synnott. “The result is a company that has made money every single month since January of 1987. Think about the enormity of that accomplishment—profitable every single month since January of 1987. That’s 286 consecutive months of profit generation. Coincidentally, Bill Bollin was promoted to executive vice president over all operations in late 1986.” Synnott added that a $1,000 stake in Bostwick-Braun in 1986 is now valued at over $110,000.

Synnott said that Bollin has also overseen many other significant changes for The Bostwick-Company, including transitioning from private ownership to an employee stock ownership plan, progressing from data processing punch cards to the launch of a turnkey point-of-sales system, and moving Toledo’s outdated distribution center to a new 300,000-square-foot warehouse in Ashley, Indiana. Under Bollin’s leadership, the company grew its hardware presence from eight states in the Midwest to 18 states across the country. The Bostwick-Braun Company acquired Steel City Products in 2006, expanding the company’s reach into automotive products, pet products and lawn and garden. Four years later, the company acquired Southern Hardware in West Helena, Arkansas, expanding its hardware reach. That same year, 2010, the company acquired JMC Sales and Engineering, expanding The Bostwick-Braun Company’s manufacturing breadth. All of these accomplishments were a result of Bollin’s leadership.

Synnott added that Bollin isn’t just admired for his business expertise. He’s also known for his passion for the Toledo Rockets football team, sailing, skiing and NASCAR. “Bill’s lifetime of achievements isn’t just in the business world. Bill is a genuine person,” he said. “He is approachable, he is conversational. Virtually all of the employees in the Bostwick-Braun family of companies know Bill-the-person. He knows their names, and in many cases the names of their children. He cares about what’s happening in every individual’s life. Bill’s faith is apparent in how he lives his life and how he conducts his business.”

In addition to the Lifetime of Achievements Award, PRO Group presented a number of other awards to distributors, including the following:

PRO Hardware Distributor of the Year: The Bostwick-Braun Company, Toledo, Ohio
FARM MART Distributor of the Year: Horizon Distribution, Inc., Yakima, Washington
Merchandising Distributor of the Year: Buttery Company, Llano, Texas
Best Target Vendor Support: Southern Hardware Company, West Helena, Arkansas

	Gary Cosgrave - PRO Group, Bill Bollin & his wife Susie Bollin - The Bostwick-Braun Company, Steve Synnott - PRO Group (Left to Right).

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PRO Group, Inc. (www.pro-group.com) is a multi-divisional, international merchandising and marketing organization with corporate headquarters in Denver, Colorado. Its operating units include PRO Hardware, GardenMaster, FARM MART and GOLDEN-LINK. The company’s purchasing power exceeds $3 billion through its member distributors.

For More Information Contact:

Shari Kalbach, PRO Group, Inc.

(303) 792-3000 shari.kalbach@pro-group.com

Additional media contact:
Ruth Furman, ImageWords (702) 255-8288

Note to media: Digital photographs of the Conference available upon request from Stephanie Pedersen of PRO Group, Inc. stephanie.pedersen@pro-group.com.