Dear Dealer,

So the headlines read, MasterBrand and American Woodmark are tying the knot. Congratulations! I enjoy a good merger party as much as anyone—confetti, synergies, and some other cool words! Let’s throw in a whole bunch of folks standing around the virtual water cooler and asking the big question, “what does it all mean? Did Mabel B (MB) ask Andy W (AW) for a pre-nup? Are they planning on having the patter of little Dura feet running around the plant soon? Goodness knows that it’s been getting pretty quiet around there since not so little Hanna D (HD)  announced she was running off with the British suitor, Wren K.  Oh the drama!

Well before we venture into the what, let’s take a stab at the “Why?” (my opinion only) I remember back when the announcement was made that Wren was going to start incorporating their “Studio Concessions” showrooms inside the Home Depot. That was big news and all I could think of at the time was, “What are Mabel and Andy going to do now?” Losing close to a half billion in purchases over time is nothing to sneeze at! And how in the world do you make that up? For now, you don’t. Keep in mind that growth has been fairly anemic on that front. From this side of the counter, it looks like two giant ships taking in water, so they lash themselves together, and then try to figure out how they can remove 90 million in expenses from the new model and still get the job done. Now that is a tall order!

None of which will be easy to do. It’s just the nature of this type of merger. Orders reroute, org charts sprout extra boxes, priorities collide, and the “we value our dealers” hotline suddenly has hold music with a sequel. If you already felt like “just a number,” congratulations: the number probably just got longer.

Bigger can be beautiful, but bigger rarely equals quicker. And quick is the name of the game now. The business world, now more than ever, will reward operators who can sense, decide, and act before the next meeting invite arrives. Yes, action on the heels of a decision. (OMG it is a new world!) Consider these newly merged manufacturers that will spend quarters harmonizing systems, policies, and product maps—because they have to. That’s normal. It’s also disruptive and not in a good way. Some initiatives (especially tech and AI-flavored ones) will slide a quarter, then another, because integration projects have a gravitational pull on resources. In this new environment, falling even a little behind is not a safe place to be.

Here’s the part I want circling in your head: you don’t have to move like a conglomerate. Independent dealers are the catamarans of this industry—light, fast, closer to the water, able to turn on a dime. (ideally) Pick the right partners and the right path and you won’t just “hang in there”; you’ll lap the folks waiting for their new email addresses to activate. And yes, it will only be a handful who see the light early. They’ll think they just made a small, sensible tweak. They won’t realize they just opened a mile of daylight on the field. Game on!

Start where it matters most: the Customer Journey. Walk it the way a nervous homeowner does. Where do they wait? Where do they wander off to when you forget them? Where does a $12 missing part threaten a $20,000 referral job? That’s where you win while the giants are busy scheduling integration standups. And let’s invite a little mischief into the process: use AI. Not as a buzzword—more like a caffeinated teammate with perfect memory and no ego. Give it a nickname (Jaxi is taken). Let it nudge the “first look” follow-up before breakfast, format a clean cut sheet the installer actually smiles at, ping a friendly “truck is 18 minutes out,” and quietly shepherd parts to closure so nothing falls into a black hole. AI won’t replace your people; it replaces the trust that you lose with customers when you don’t perform well. Remember- Margin Erosion is not a mystery, it’s a Metric.

If the new MB/AW shows up with faster lead times, clearer comms, and a dealer-first attitude—fantastic. I’ll cheer with you. But I’m not betting your 2026–2030 on a committee’s calendar. While the big one learns to dance with its new feet, you can delight customers with speed, clarity, and a little AI-assisted wow! That’s how independents take share in a “scale wins” world: by being quicker, kinder, and strangely, more human.

Open the door before AI kicks it in. Pick partners who move with foresight and speed. And let the merger party happen…while you quietly steal the show.

—Thad

PS The KB Revolution starts November 11th. For those who want to wait and see, maybe you should grab lunch with that friend that owned the last Blockbusters. The rest of you should show up to not only learn how AI, AI Agents, and technology can transform your business, but more importantly, how to implement them into your Dealership, one step at a time.

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