How did you feel delivering the strong performance in a year like this with the pandemic?

Dan Schwab: We were humbled by how everyone stepped up. We are thankful. We started the year concerned not just for the business but for all of our friends and partners in the industry. It was clearly uncertain times and although we are not fully out of choppy waters people do see what the future may look like whereas six to nine months ago people were unsure. I think it was very unsettling for a while. What made us more comfortable was the rudder of the D&H co-owners helping us navigate these unchartered waters.

Michael Schwab: I look back and say it is sort of mind boggling that we could actually perform and execute at such a robust level in the midst of a pandemic with everyone remote.

The game changing inflection point for us came was when we saw this setting in and Dan and I made a conscious decision to empower our co-owners to take ownership and control of everything within their domain. We have built into our culture- treat it like it is your own business. That really allowed us to be proud of an organization that at every level from human resources to accounting to distribution centers to product procurement, sales and marketing going virtual with events. Everyone had to take ownership. We empowered them and they stepped up.