The Top 150 Leaderboard

Commodity prices, housing inventory, post-pandemic shopping habits —they all factored into the sales performance of the industry’s Top 150 hardware and building supply dealers.

Here is the link to the annual HBSDealer Leaderboard, featuring the full 150 high-performing retailers and prodealers.

Lumber prices sat in the penthouse at the start of 2022 before taking a gradual, slow ride down to the ground floor at year’s end.

And in 2023, lumber and commodity prices have been a source of frustration for some of the industry’s biggest players. During their first quarter 2023 conference calls, the CEOs of The Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Builders FirstSource all reported lower sales numbers and pointed to commodity prices as, perhaps, the biggest setback in revenue for the period.

But while lumber and wood product prices are down as much as 16% with softwood lumber prices lagging more than 40% from a year ago, housing suddenly has legs after a slow start in 2023. A lack of existing inventory has pushed buyers back toward new single-family home purchases despite high price tags, inflation, and lofty mortgage rates.