Building in the American heartland builds business for Amerhart. The company distributes hardware, lumber, and building materials, including decking, insulation, plywood, shingles, and siding through locations in Green Bay, Milwaukee, Sun Prairie, and West Salem, Wisconsin, as well as one in Perkin, Illinois. Amerhart also offers services, including floor plan design. The company's vendors include Ply Gem Industries, Louisiana Pacific, and CertainTeed. Tracing its roots back to 1940, Amerhart takes its name from the 1963 acquisition of American Millwork and Supply by Hartman Wholesale.

Art Van Furniture Michigan's #1 furniture seller offers medium-priced home furniture and bedding in some 35 Michigan stores. The chain has undergone a renovation, adding more upscale furniture (it sells Sealy, Simmons, and Broyhill brands) and perks such as children's play areas. The company is known for its aggressive sales and service. (Employees have been known to greet patrons carside with umbrellas on rainy days.) Chairman Art Van Elslander, who has 10 children (some active in the business), founded the firm with an East Detroit store in 1959. The company celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2009.

Focus (DIY) Limited company is owned by US investment firm Cerberus Capital Management. Focus (DIY) Limited has its sights fixed on weekend warriors. The company markets a range of products for do-it-yourselfers engaged in light home improvement and gardening projects, including power tools, hardware, appliances, decking and flooring, contemporary home and patio furniture, garden buildings, and plants and seeds. Focus sells its merchandise through about 180 stores in the UK and Ireland, as well as through its Web site. The site also offers guides, price lists, and calculators for DIY projects.

Carrefour Italia sources more than 90% of its agricultural food products locally and sells its own brands of food, including the Terre D'Italia and ScelgoBio labels.Europe's leading retailer Carrefour knows that to live la dolce vita, you've got to buy lots of stuff. Its operations in Italy are carried out by Carrefour Italia, one of the country's biggest sellers of food and general merchandise, along with Conad and Coop Italia. Carrefour owns about 495 stores in Italy, which operate under the names Carrefour (about 65 hypermarkets), GS (about 235 supermarkets), DìperDì (some 175 convenience stores), and DocksMarket and GrossIper (about 15 cash-and-carry stores), and franchises more than a thousand others.

Chairman Max Gondon founded AMS in 1969. The company was acquired in 2007 by CRH, an Ireland-based building materials maker. Acoustical Material Services (AMS) sells the materials builders need to put a roof over your head -- not to mention hold your whole house together. The company provides acoustical ceiling products, lath and plaster, drywall, doors, and frames, as well as other construction supplies. Customers include large and small contractors, subcontractors, building owners, and dealers. AMS distributes products from about 20 locations in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah, as well as Mexico (via AMS De Mexico). It also exports to markets in Guam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Taiwan.

Big Y Foods began as a 900-sq.-ft. grocery at a Y intersection in Chicopee,Massachusetts.It now operates some 60 supermarkets throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut. Most of its stores are Big Y World Class Markets,offering specialty areas such as bakeries and floral shops, as well as banking.The rest consist of Big Y Supermarkets and a single gourmet food and liquor store called Table & Vine in Springfield,Massachusetts.Some Big Y stores provide child care, dry cleaning, photo processing, and even propane sales,and their delis and food courts offer to-go foods.Big Y is owned and run by the D'Amour family and is one of New England's largest independent supermarket chains.

C. C. Dickson was founded in 1933 and is owned by the Dickson family including chairman Clyde Dickson, Jr. C. C. Dickson has never played a tune, but still has plenty of fans. Operating through about 110 locations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, the company distributes parts, supplies, and equipment for heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and refrigeration. Products include air distribution supplies (Air King, Duro-Dyne); blowers and fans (Chelsea and Lau); compressors (Blissfield, Copeland); controls (Barber-Coleman, Maxitrol); pumps (Bell & Gossett, Hartel); and refrigerants (Honeywell, Icor).

Ocado investors include the company's directors. The average Ocado order tops about £100, a rich price, but the firm's ability to turn a profit is still erratic. The Internet grocer went public in 2010.Upscale Internet grocer Ocado serves more than 13.5 million tech-savvy, time-pressed households in Greater London, Hertfordshire, Kent, the Midlands, Surrey, North West, and now the South Coast. Launched by three former Goldman Sachs bankers in 2002, Ocado delivers groceries in Mercedes vans from its supermarket partner John Lewis Partnership-owned Waitrose Limited, which owns a stake in the company, to the customer's doorstep

Founded in 1892 as a local hardware store, the retailer was acquired by The Boots Company (now Alliance Boots) in 1989 and sold off in 2002; in 2004 it floated as a publicly traded company for the first time. Halfords Group is more than just mechanically inclined: It serves others who are also DIY mechanics. The retailer sells vehicle maintenance necessities (parts, tools), luxury automobile items (stereos, navigation systems), and travel-related products (car seats, camping equipment), as well as bicycles and related components. Halfords operates about 470 stores across the UK and Ireland, as well as about a half a dozen locations in the Czech Republic and Poland.

Aaron & Company was founded in the early 1900s by plumber Isadore Aaron. His grandson Jeffrey retired from in 2002, leaving the firm without an Aaron for the first time. Aaron & Company knows a thing or two about staying cool. Catering primarily to contractors in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania, the wholesaler offers plumbing and HVAC supplies through half a dozen locations in the Garden State. Three of these locations house Aaron Kitchen & Bath Design Galleries, which feature complete kitchen and bathroom set-ups to help customers with building and remodeling plans. Aaron & Company is served by a single 120,000-sq.-ft. distribution center.

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