Into the storm: Hamm takes Weekends Only helm as health crisis hits home | Home Accents Today

ST. LOUIS — Tom Phillips had headed Weekends Only Furniture and Mattress, a retail chain recognized for under being open Friday by means of Sunday, as CEO for greater than 20 years earlier than retiring earlier this 12 months.

Retirement was one thing Phillips and the remainder of the staff at Weekends Only had been planning for a very long time as a part of its succession technique. But having Phillips make the transition (to serving in a extra advisory function as govt chairman) within the midst of COVID-19 was one thing nobody, together with his successor, Weekends Only’s President and CEO Lane Hamm, may have ready for.

In his new function, Hamm has been tasked with main individuals and an organization in an trade that’s enormously challenged, taking up the function at a time when a lot of the retailer’s showrooms had really been shuttered due to stay-at-home orders.

“I’ve been with the company 13-years, started out as the chief financial officer and was president for six, and took on the CEO title right as everything with the pandemic started out and Tom retired,” defined Hamm. “I think ‘crazy’ could describe these first few months well.”

Feeling the pandemic influence

Hamm stated the primary few weeks in his new job have been spent simply making an attempt to “figure out how to survive” as all of Weekends Only’s areas closed up store for seven weeks. Before that, although, Hamm stated the retailer had already begun to really feel the influence of COVID-19.

The weekend after St. Louis had its first official case of the respiratory illness introduced in early March there was an instantaneous drop in gross sales on the retailer’s 5 close by areas, adopted by a number of comparably gradual weekends. On Weekends Only’s final open weekend earlier than official lockdown orders have been known as, Hamm described the showrooms as trying like “ghost towns.”

“We were going to close the stores anyway, whether there was a stay-at-home order or not, because there just wasn’t enough business to support bringing people in and putting them at risk,” famous Hamm in regards to the closures.

So, Hamm and his staff selected to pivot their focus to Weekends Only’s on-line presence, one thing the corporate has been engaged on since 2013. The web site, which is about as much as promote to shoppers inside its retail location’s conventional goal areas, had provided supply and pickup choices to its clients for years earlier than the pandemic however now stood as the one clear income for the corporate.

Working intently (albeit just about) together with his staff, Hamm made the decision to tug out of conventional media commercials, by means of mediums similar to radio and TV, for May and put that time and cash into focused on-line commercials in addition to web site and stock administration enhancements.

And it labored.

Throughout the lockdown, Hamm stated, on-line gross sales grew steadily, which made enhancing stock administration and monitoring key, in addition to offering the retailer with extra buyer suggestions on easy methods to enhance its web site and on-line shopping for expertise.

Using lockdown time

In addition to rising e-commerce, Hamm stated the corporate recognized different processes and programs, each new and outdated, to work on throughout the lockdown, together with implementing a brand new scheduling system for its in-store workers and discovering distant work options, similar to Microsoft Teams and video name options, for its workers which might be working from residence.

One of the largest issues Hamm tackled early on was securing a PPP mortgage for the corporate, permitting Weekends Only to proceed paying its workers by means of the lockdown interval.

The course of was prolonged and complex, particularly, Hamm famous, as a result of the corporate banks with a bigger firm, PNC, that had many shoppers speeding to use suddenly. In the tip, Weekends Only was permitted for the mortgage simply two days earlier than the preliminary pool of $300 billion ran utterly out.

Despite the tumultuous time throughout which Hamm transitioned into the CEO spot, he stated that general the transition internally has been a “non-event.”

“With as long as I’ve been in the president’s seat, and with the incredible team I’ve been working with for years, taking on the CEO title has not been a big change day-to-day,” he stated. “It’s really been more of a mental change for me.”

With that, Hamm stated, he’s been taking up a broader decision-making function, making modifications that Phillips beforehand was answerable for, similar to bringing new individuals onto the corporate’s advisory board and adapting Weekends Only’s five-year plan. Additionally, he has been taking up just a few extra cellphone calls that used to go to Phillips, releasing Phillips as much as modify to his new advisory place.

“Change is always going to cause some uncertainty for the folks involved,” famous Hamm. “With everything going on with the coronavirus, I think everyone has been caught up dealing with that uncertainty, but it’s still important for me to be in constant contact with them to get an idea of where everyone in the organization is so I can help them do their jobs.”

And that’s Hamm’s present go-forward technique: To proceed “over communicating” together with his staff as he settles into his function and proceed reopening shops, taking security ques from locations which were open, similar to grocery shops and different important companies, all whereas pushing ahead with elevated on-line efforts.

“We aren’t going to be going backwards online,” stated Hamm. The truth of “people shopping online is only going to grow, and our goal is to make e-commerce 20% of our business. And I think we’re going to get there sooner rather than later. … I think it may actually end up becoming one of the first long-term goals I’m part of as CEO.”