The 2023 Cornwell Tools Rally was held at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas from March 23-25 and hosted close to 600 distributors along with around 120 vendors. To say the weekend began with a bang, wouldn’t be an exaggeration as Henderson, Nevada’s Marching Wolfpack band drummed up the crowd’s excitement and prepared them for a weekend full of tools, training, and togetherness.
Cornwell Director of Marketing, Don Russell, noted the difference between last year’s kick-off event and this year’s.
“Last year was the first year we did a kick-off meeting, and people were slow to come in the room. They were staying at the back of the room kind of like, ‘Is this really worth my time?’ And this year, we opened the doors and there was just a flood, and it just filled that room up. It was awesome.”
Russell said he isn’t quite sure how they’re going to top the marching band from this year’s kick-off event, but rest assured, he and the Cornwell team are already brainstorming for next year.
American greatness, USA-made
Cornwell’s theme for the event, as well as the rest of the year, is “American greatness” — a fitting theme considering this year’s focus on USA-made tools and equipment.
While Cornwell launched many new tools and equipment, the buzz on the show floor belonged centered around the release of the new ARCA Tool Storage line.
The ARCA line consists of a 57” 8-drawer double bank roller cabinet and a 79” 13-drawer triple bank roller cabinet. Canopies and lockers are currently in the prototype stage but will be available soon. For this line, Cornwell also worked with the DesignHouse team at Sherwin Williams to develop seven new colors – Ignition Orange, Lightning Yellow, Torch Blue, Vapor (white), Smoke (light gray), Storm (dark gray), and Shadow (black). The colors also feature metal flakes and interference pigments, which give the boxes just a bit of sparkle and make them unique to the industry.
Russell noted how they really started from scratch with these toolboxes and listened to all the complaints from their dealers to create something that would address all those concerns.
Also launched at the show, were the 3/8” Drive 120 Tooth Extra Long Ratchets. These ratchets have fully machined heads, whereas, in the past, these were hand-made. In doing this, Russell said what they are losing in some of the hand-made parts, they are gaining in quality. Additionally, a 29-pc Tempest Point Mechanic’s Length Drill Bit Set from Consolidated Toledo Drill, a variety of screwdriver sets from Mayhew, and racing creepers and seats from Whiteside were introduced. All new products launched at the show are USA-made.
Dealer’s choice
The event also offered four classes for the dealers to attend.
- A class about the new toolboxes
- A class on how to sell the new toolboxes
- A class about collections
- A class about promo blasts for the show
They try to have two product-focused classes and two business-focused classes.
“Dealer health is a big focus that we want to continue to coach our dealers and help them fine-tune their business,” stated Andy Scott, national director of sales for Cornwell. “So, throughout the year, we're looking at ways to do that, and it was a natural fit with the new toolbox coming out. Getting back to some basics of selling toolboxes and just kind of refreshing how you enter into those sales. The collections class was all about…coaching on efficient ways to operate and be more profitable.”
Russell also noted that these were the largest classrooms they’ve had, and they were “packed” from the first session to the last session.
Trying something new
At this year’s event, Cornwell decided to add in a dinner with a DJ to follow on Friday night. The thought behind this was to give the dealers a social event where they can relax after a long day on the show floor and chat with the people they only get to see once a year.
“Going around and talking to dealers throughout the year, I got to know more people, and they asked to have more time to just spend with dealers that are not in their districts around the country,” Scott said. “And when they do that, they talk about business, share best practices—the whole family feel. And I saw a lot of that [Friday] night. Dealers from districts sitting with other dealers from other parts of the country, and a lot of laughing, a lot of storytelling.”
Join Cornwell for next year’s event at the Gaylord Resort in Aurora, Colorado from Feb. 29-March 2.
To view more pictures from the event, check out the 2023 Cornwell Tools Rally photo gallery here.
