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’s Lasting Role in 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.

Partnering with The Farnsworth Group

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.

Investing Further Into 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.”

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With The Farnsworth Group select­ed by the HIRI Board to man­age HIRI for the fore­see­able future and with Dave King's increased involve­ment, efforts will be about invest­ing more into HIRI mem­bers and mak­ing a big­ger impact in the home improve­ment indus­try at large.

Your com­pa­ny can join lead­ing com­pa­nies with on-demand and unlim­it­ed access to $1M in Home Improve­ment Indus­try Research. Book a mem­ber­ship con­sul­ta­tion through HIRI's website to learn more.