Interview with Nick and Kirby Kuklenski, owners
Q: How did you get involved in this business?
A: After several years in the corporate banking world, Kirby wanted to own his own business. After much investigation, we fell in love with the Ace co-op model. It gave us the flexibility to fulfill a need in communities along the front range while allowing us to tailor the store to the needs of each community. Mile High Ace Hardware & Garden is a locally owned and operated, 20,000-square-foot retail hardware store and Garden Center. It’s our second store in a three-store chain. As our flagship store, we built it from the ground up and we were able to let our creativity run free. Along with our hardware, paint, plumbing, electrical and tools selection, we have a garden center with outdoor power equipment and a repair shop, and an elevated deck with the best grill and smoker selection in North Denver.
Q: What distinguishes you from other businesses in your category?
A: We are very unique in the marketplace as many mom-and-pop hardware stores have disappeared over the past 25 years. We specialize in those hard-to-find repair items and premium brands that don’t necessarily exist at those Home Improvement superstores and we offer an extensive service department. We have found our niche in home repair and stocking those otherwise very difficult-to-find repair items. That said, we are unique in the fact that we have a large enough building and garden center to directly compete on some of those home improvement items as well. We are committed to being “The Helpful Place” by offering our customers knowledgeable advice, helpful service and quality products. We promise that, “helping you is the most important thing we have to do today.”
Q: What do you like best about your line of work?
A: We take pride in the fact that as a company we will help well over 350,000 customers this year, many of which came in with a problem we were able to fix for them. It’s great to be able to partner with members of the community and other small businesses to throw neighborhood events. Our annual Grill Your Ace Off competition is on June 7, with more than 20 local companies and vendors in an effort to raise money for the Children’s Hospital of Denver.
Q: What is your business’ biggest challenge?
A: Our businesses biggest challenge is finding enough space in-store to carry all the products that we need to support the community. Although we strive to either stock or special order any product a customer is looking for, there are some products and categories that we don’t have room for.
Q: Something people might be surprised to learn about you or your business:
A: We get questions everyday about the services that we offer. To name a few: document shredding, small engine repair, screen repair, key cutting, chip key cutting, blade sharpening, chain sharpening, glass cutting, plexi-glass cutting, free delivery and assembly and much more.
Profile
Business: Mile High Ace Hardware & Garden
Address: 2800 W. 104th Ave., Federal Heights
Hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.to 7 p.m. Saturday, 9 a.m.to 6 p.m. Sunday
Founded: 2008
Contact: 303-531-2370, ,
Employees: 25
