Case Study: Aubuchon Hardware cuts $5M excess inventory, recovers $2M in sales and boosts net profits 50% with 4R Systems

Aubuchon Retools Inventory Strategy And Reaps Profits Across Categories

Aubuchon Hardware, a 105-store, family-owned retailer in the Northeast, faced significant inventory and fulfillment challenges amid major operational changes: roughly $5 million in excess inventory, an estimated $2 million in missed annual sales, and a transition away from a company-run distribution center while expanding assortments and moving toward localized store-level stocking. The company needed a reliable, data-driven way to right-size inventory, improve in-season availability, and hold suppliers accountable.

Partnering with 4R Systems, Aubuchon used detailed analytics to reset stocking levels and buying cadence, cutting excess inventory from $5M to $1.8M in just over a year, recapturing about $2M in lost sales across many categories, and boosting net profits by roughly 50%. The retailer also expanded SKUs by ~12% to about 60,000, improved vendor fill rates and accountability, and shifted decision-making from top-down to bottom-up, supporting projected sales growth to $172M.

Aubuchon Hardware

Jared Brown

Senior Analyst