A focus on convenience and knowledgeable service has enabled the 4,600-store [Ace Hardware](http://www.acehardware.com “Ace Hardware Website”) chain to stake out a modest but healthy share of the huge hardware market, providing the impetus for the biggest new-store expansion in its history.

The 83-year-old chain just concluded its best sales year since 1998, with wholesale sales up 6.5 percent to $3.4 billion and a record bottom line exceeding $104 million, based on preliminary figures. Its stores, about two-thirds owned by independent dealers, racked up almost $12 billion in retail sales. Ace appears to have outperformed Lowes and Home Depot in same-store sales growth for the fourth year in the last five.

Ace is not the place for the lowest prices or the biggest assortment of home improvement goods; the big boxes have it beaten in those categories. But analyst Howard Davidowitz says it is nonetheless doing “tremendous” business by emphasizing convenience and by continuing to upgrade the esthetics of the stores.

[Read](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/16/ap/business/mainD8MMKK5O1.shtml “Read the Story”) (AP via CBS News)