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The inaugural Above & Beyond Award was presented at NASFM's 50th Anniversary Celebration and Retail Design Awards Presentation in Orlando March 26, 2006.

Fixtures were installed in the new Hattiesburg Merle Norman store in one day.

Bob Bailes, who handled Huddleston's account for PIN, and Jeff Pray, PIN's president

PIN President Jeff Pray accepted the award.

In acknowledgement of the outstanding levels of performance that NASFM members provide their customers, the Above & Beyond Award, first presented this year, recognizes specific member companies that have exceeded their customers’ expectations and, in some cases, made the impossible possible. The inaugural award was presented during NASFM’s 50th Anniversary Celebration and Retail Design Awards Presentation in Orlando March 26, 2006.

The idea for the award came from a suggestion by an NASFM Retail Advisory Council member who wanted to give retailers the opportunity to reward hard-working vendors for more than design capabilities. Entry forms were sent to retailers and NASFM members in November 2005. Retailer Carol LaPorta at Merle Norman Cosmetics nominated Irving-Texas-based PIN, which ultimately received the award for services provided following Hurricane Katrina.

Getting a new store up and running in the wake of catastrophic loss is no easy feat. So when Wanda Huddleston lost both her home and one of her two existing Merle Norman Cosmetics stores in Hattiesburg, Miss., to Hurricane Katrina, LaPorta, vice president of studio development for Merle Norman, asked the fixture provider to expedite the process.

“Experiencing the hurricane and the aftermath was one of the most traumatic experiences of her life. When she found a new retail location, she needed her fixtures quickly so she could get back in business and get some portion of her life back to normal,” LaPorta says.

PIN, an Irving, Texas-based store fixture company, was only too happy to go above and beyond the call of duty for the determined franchisee. “At PIN, it’s a team effort. Everyone co-owns the account,” says Harry Frnka, PIN sales director.

In this case, the team’s extra effort began with production. “If a retailer orders stock fixtures, we ship in 10 days, but this was a custom order and we still shipped it in 10 days,” Frnka notes.

Huddleston recalls the speed with which PIN manufactured her new fixtures. “They rushed the completion of my special order fixtures to allow me to resume business in a new location. However, the service didn’t stop there,” she says.

Getting the fixtures out the door was just the beginning. Damage to the area’s infrastructure coupled with excessive demand due to the rebuilding effort had freight carriers backlogged. PIN met the delivery challenge by relying on its transportation partner, which delivered the fixtures as scheduled.

But more challenges awaited. Huddleston had attempted to contract an installation crew, but in the labor-starved region, she was unable to find professional installers. Fortunately for her, Bob Bailes, who was handling the account for PIN at the time, had decided to meet the crew when the fixtures arrived just to make sure everything went smoothly. After driving on largely impassable roads from the nearest hotel room 85 miles away (closer lodging having been taken by FEMA and relief workers), Bailes sized up the situation.

“Wanda and her daughter were standing in the store, one of the few buildings in the area with a roof, and although they’d contracted for inside delivery, that only includes bringing the fixtures into the store. There was no one to help them get the store operational,” he recalls. Bailes appealed to the three workers who were unloading the fixtures. “Luckily, they had no other scheduled stops for the rest of the day, so they pitched in and together we got all her fixtures installed within the day.”

In addition to expressing gratitude for PIN’s extra efforts, Huddleston informed LaPorta that she was pleased with the high quality of the fixtures. After stocking the new shelves, Huddleston opened the new store Oct. 29, a mere two months after the devastating storm made landfall in the Gulf region.

“PIN literally came to my rescue,” says a grateful Huddleston. “The service provided by PIN had an obvious financial impact as well, by enabling me to open my doors in the new location in a very timely manner.”

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