photograph by justin fox burks
“There’s been two history books written about Orgill,” says Boyden Moore, CEO of Orgill. “The first one was written in 1947 for our hundred-year anniversary, and the second one was written in 1997 for our 150th anniversary.”
Orgill is not only the oldest company in Memphis, it’s the oldest company in Tennessee — a fact which Moore attributes to the wisdom of his forbears. “It’s a 177-year-old, family-owned business,” he says. “It has been a story of survival. They were here through the Civil War. They were here through the yellow fever epidemic. They never shut their doors; they stayed open the entire time taking care of customers … Orgill’s been true to who they are for a long time and has had to adapt to be successful through 177 years. You can imagine how many different products have come and gone that we’ve distributed.”
Moore was surprised when he learned he was only the ninth president in the company’s long history. “So throughout all of that time,” he says, “there’s been a steady hand of leadership at Orgill that’s led things through. To me, it’s a huge responsibility.”
William Orgill, who founded the company in 1847, was an English hardware salesman. For decades, the company sold directly to consumers before moving into purely wholesale distribution in 1908. “We serve the home-improvement industry,” says Moore. “Home Depot and Lowe’s, who we do not serve, make up about half the industry. The other half is composed of 32,000 small, independent hardware stores, home centers, lumber yards, and farm stores all across the country. We ship to just over 13,000 of those 32,000 in all 50 states. We have customers in all provinces and territories of Canada, and about 50 additional countries as well.”
When Moore moved to Memphis in 2011, his mission was to break back into retail. “We were starting up a new business, called Central Network Retail Group. Orgill was investing in that, and ultimately bought that company as a wholly owned subsidiary in 2017.”
“Our mission is to help our customers be successful. We believe that if they’re successful, then we have a chance at being successful as well. It’s just fun to help small businesses succeed.” — Boyden Moore
Orgill’s 147 retail stores now employ about half of the 7,000 people who work for the company. Moore ascended to CEO on the strength of that growth, taking the job in January 2020 — just in time to lead the company through the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Like everyone else, we’re concerned about safety and prioritize safety,” he says. “The industry we serve was a critical industry to the health and sanitation of the home. So those stores didn’t close. You had to learn how to take care of customers and minimize the potential spread of Covid. Safety protocols changed, but we came to work every day. We had to do what we had to do.”
But what also changed for Orgill was an extraordinary surge in demand for the products the company sold. “As everybody spent more time at home, they spent more money on their home, and they couldn’t spend it on other things,” Moore says. “In 2019, [Orgill] did $2.5 billion [in revenue.] Three years later, we’d grown 50 percent to 3.7 billion. So it was huge, huge growth to manage while we were also trying to figure out how to keep everybody safe.”
Moore made sure the company continued to prioritize its customers through the crisis, a decision he says has paid off handsomely. “Supply chains became very, very difficult — getting people what they need when they needed it became more of a challenge. I couldn’t be more proud of how our team worked through all that. I think that a lot of the success we’ve had in the last two years has been driven by how well we responded for our customers, which also attracted new business to us as well.”
As he leads his company through a post-pandemic world of radically changed operating environments, Moore believes the secret to Orgill’s long history of success in business is old-fashioned teamwork.
“I’m honored to be recognized for CEO of the Year, but the truth of the matter is, it’s really the team that makes everything happen. I feel like I’m the least important person to making Orgill successful. But I’ve been blessed with a great team, both through the years, and the one that I inherited that was already here,” he says. “Whoever’s taking care of our customers every day, face-to-face, shoulder to shoulder in their stores, is really the most important person in our business. They’re the ones who make us succeed or fail.
“One of the fun things about Orgill is serving the small businesses that we serve,” he continues. “Our mission is to help our customers be successful. We believe that if they’re successful, then we have a chance at being successful as well. It’s just fun to help small businesses succeed. That’s kind of a call that you answer when you get up in the morning. It makes you feel good about going to work.”
About CEO of the Year
For more than a decade, Memphis Magazine has celebrated a group of CEOs every year, recognizing visionaries and executives who go above and beyond to elevate their companies and their community. And every year, we gather these leaders at a sponsored awards breakfast to honor them in front of their peers and the community.
The challenge is in deciding which of them should receive the honor. Memphis is bold, creative, and forward-thinking, so those who are selected by magazine staff members do more than lead a successful organization. We like to see leaders that value innovation, who pay particular attention to the welfare and treatment of employees, and who give back to the community. It is these efforts that make a difference, and these results that provide a reason to celebrate.
The awards breakfast is April 16th from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at Hardin Hall at Memphis Botanic Garden. Prices are $200 for a table of 10 or $30 per ticket. Tickets are at bit.ly/memceo
The 2024 CEO of the Year is sponsored by eBiz Solutions and ProTech Services Group.
