| Organization: The Clouse family, owner of over 20 Ace Hardware locations. | Need: Consolidated financials to meet company requirements for further growth. | Outcome: The family is set up for additional business expansion and succession planning. |
Understanding the situation
For many family-owned retailers, growth happens one location at a time. This kind of expansion can create complexity, especially when each store is structured as a separate legal entity.
This was the situation facing the Clouse family, owners of Clouse Ace Hardware in northern Michigan. With roots dating back to 1914, the family had grown its operations to include more than 20 Ace Hardware locations.
As the business transitioned to the next generation, growth accelerated, and the organization evolved into a multi-entity structure spanning numerous companies and business systems.
While individual locations operated effectively, financial reporting across the organization became fragmented. As lending needs grew more complex, assembling a clear, timely, and consistent view of overall performance became increasingly difficult.
Lenders needed consolidated financial information reflecting the full ownership group — not just individual stores — along with clear visibility into obligations and covenant considerations.
Help set your company up financially for growth, succession.
Exploring the challenge
The family’s lender recommended CLA for its deep experience with cooperatives and multi-entity retail businesses.
Early working sessions established a consistent reporting cadence and aligned stakeholders around what “lender ready” financials should include. CLA designed a consolidated reporting structure, including connecting reporting, documentation, and financing requirements across entities.
In multi-entity retail organizations, lenders evaluate performance and risk at the ownership group level. CLA updated disclosures to reflect obligations across related companies and demonstrated consistent covenant awareness.
CLA streamlined our financial reporting and made it consistent across the organization. Having accurate, lender‑ready information has positioned us to pursue additional growth and start planning thoughtfully for business transition. Byron Clouse, Clouse Ace Hardware
Achieving results
Reporting became more repeatable and less dependent on manual, ad hoc processes. The Clouse family used to manually update its debt schedule — which encompasses 80 loans. CLA created a formula that manually updates each loan status with a click of a button.
With clearer, consolidated financials in place, the Clouse family’s opportunities for continued business growth have expanded. National companies like Ace Hardware generally require financial reviews from well-regarded banks and CPAs.
Next on the family’s business strategy agenda is succession planning. Business transition planning works well when it’s a multi-step, multi-year process, including entity structuring, tax planning, gifting strategies, and wealth management.
The Clouse family and CLA are discussing plans to restructure the family’s 50 business entities into a few holding companies for tax strategy purposes. CLA’s owner legacy services team offers a full complement of business transition services, which CLA will help the Clouse family explore.