What started in 1981 as a cooperative between six of the largest home improvement manufacturers and retailers to provide investor education has evolved into the present day Home Improvement Research Institute (HIRI). HIRI is the leading secondary market research organization for over one hundred of the biggest names within the home improvement industry.
HIRI has always been a member-driven, nonprofit and as such, has also had a managing firm appointed by the Board of Directors. This appointment by the Board is based on the managing firm’s ability to drive the mission of HIRI forward and provide valuable industry expertise to members.
HIRI was founded in 1981 as the DIY Institute by Brad Farnsworth, who later founded The Farnsworth Group in 1989 as a for-profit, custom market research firm serving the home improvement and building product industries.
Between the late 1980s and 2017, HIRI was managed by various media and publishing firms. During that time The Farnsworth Group remained an important ally and supporter of the HIRI organization.
In 2017, the HIRI Board selected The Farnsworth Group as the managing firm due to their 30+ years of industry research expertise and over 300 years of combined staff experience. Since being selected by the HIRI Board in 2017, The Farnsworth Group has fulfilled that stewardship role in earnest by growing membership, improving industry awareness, and delivering quality research.
The added value HIRI members have seen in quality of research and output over the last several years has stemmed from The Farnsworth Group’s foundation of internal custom market research resources for conducting studies and analysis along with decades of specializing in the home improvement industry, fostering a rich understanding of the industry landscape with which to interpret and present study findings to HIRI members.
Since 1989, The Farnsworth Group has been building a team of experts for the building products, home improvement, and lawn & garden sector by providing custom research for manufacturers, suppliers and retailers including the likes of Lowe’s, Home Depot, Husqvarna, USG, Kohler, and Masco.
“We see an opportunity for continuity, which yields better member experiences, and continuity requires a managing firm that will care about the long-term outcomes of the HIRI organization over anything else,” mentions Grant Farnsworth, President of The Farnsworth Group.
“Our team provides high quality market research, and our team CARES deeply about the outcomes member companies experience based on decisions made from the research. We’re most excited about the opportunity to continue managing HIRI for the foreseeable future so that we can continue to improve research depth and breadth for HIRI members.
As The Farnsworth Group, we’ve made new investments in bringing on additional industry experts, including Dave King, and resources to put more energy behind the volume and quality of research all HIRI members will have access to.”
With The Farnsworth Group selected by the HIRI Board to manage HIRI for the foreseeable future and with Dave’s increased involvement, efforts will be about investing more into HIRI members and making a bigger impact in the home improvement industry at large.
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