Builders Square
 |
|
| Originally, home improvement retailer Currently, online retailer |
|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1970 (as retail store, defunct 1999) 2006 (as online retailer) |
| Headquarters | Original company in San Antonio, Texas Current company in Edison, New Jersey |
| Products | Home Improvement, Home and Garden |
| Website | http://www.builderssquare.com |
Builders Square was a big-box home improvement retailer headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. A subsidiary of Kmart, its format was quite similar to The Home Depot, Menards and Lowe's with floor space of about 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2). In 1997, a Los Angeles leveraged buyout specialist acquired Builders Square and merged it with Hechinger but the new combined company failed to thrive and all remaining stores ceased business operations by the end of 1999.
The more recent Builders Square, Inc. operated builderssquare.com as a comparison shopping website for home and garden products. It was headquartered in Edison, New Jersey.
The company was founded in February 1970 as Home Centers of America by Frank Denny, an executive who had recently been president of the home center subsidiary of W. R. Grace and Company. Somewhat unusually for the time, Home Centers of America was funded from the beginning as a public stock company. The company opened its first store in San Antonio soon after and eventually operated nine stores, all in Texas, and all operating as Home Pro Warehouse. Home Centers of America was sold to Kmart in July 1984 for $88.2 million (USD). The company and all stores were renamed Builders Square after acquisition, with Mr. Denny continuing as Builders Square company president for several years and overseeing company expansion. By 1997, the chain operated 162 stores in Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Puerto Rico. However, despite a $700 million investment by its parent company, high-profile sponsorships that included the Alamo Bowl, and celebrity spokespeople such as Darrell Waltrip and Tim Allen, the chain was not able to maintain profitability.
...
Wikipedia