"For two years after that, we didn't open a new store, and it's unusual for a retailer not to grow. The opportunity was there, but with the crisis and being a co-operative, you rely on individuals to make investments."
He doesn't mention last year's financial failure of three Wellington stores which went into receivership, although the group said at the time the stores were trading profitably. In that case, the owner's investments outside of his Mitre 10 interests were behind the collapses.
Instead, the driven Hartmann is focused on stressing growth and tells how, in the year to June 30, Mitre 10 opened in Mt Wellington, Cambridge, Papamoa, Pukekohe, Timaru and Wellington.
One of Hartmann's first tasks since arriving from the United States this year was to become intimately acquainted with the business, which also owns the 60-store Hammer Hardware chain.
Hartmann's appointment was the result of a domestic and international hunt for a new leader to spearhead the battle with rival Bunnings. Aside from his FBI career, which he doesn't mention, Hartmann is a former senior executive at one of the world's biggest retail hardware chains, Home Depot, where he worked for its wholesaler HD Supply.
He started with Home Depot in Atlanta then moved to its Orlando offices and then, almost improbably, to quiet, suburban Glenfield, where his offices are at 46 View Rd.
"The move here has been awesome. I've gone around and visited all the stores and the family went around a lot of them, too," says Hartmann, an alumnus of Syracuse University and its College of Law, which summarises his career on its website.
His roles at Home Depot included chief operating officer of Home Depot Supply Electrical and director of strategic business development where he led more than 15 acquisition integrations ranging from US$4 million ($4.9 million) to US$1.35 billion in deal size.
Before Home Depot, he was vice-president of corporate services for Cardinal Health in Ohio, the alumnus profile notes.
It also mentions his previous role as a supervisory special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation "where his responsibilities included the direction of international investigative programmes focused on intelligence and criminal investigation and serving as liaison for the FBI to the intelligence community in the area of economic espionage".
It goes on: "Mr Hartmann earned a bachelor's degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology and a juris doctor degree from Syracuse University College of Law. In addition to his training at the FBI Academy."
He was on the university's College of Law board of advisers, and served on the boards of several US companies and non-profit organisations.
The father of two grew up in the small town of Clifton Springs - "I was a cow farm boy" - in New York State, south of Lake Ontario near the Canadian border and not far from Niagara Falls.
"I had an incredibly modest upbringing. Dad was a banker," he says, immediately dismissing any image of a big-time, merchant wheeler-dealer.
"I started my business career in distribution working for a large US-based business, Cardinal Distribution - a US$80 billion business in logistics and distribution primarily in pharmaceuticals," he says, telling how being a lawyer was useful in his Home Depot roles.
"I used my legal skills there in strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions. I was at Home Depot from 2002 until it went private in 2007."
Hartmann now lives on the North Shore at Okura near Long Bay.
Store wars
Mitre 10
* NZ-owned co-operative.
* Started in 1974.
* Twice the size of Bunnings.
* Stores from Kaitaia to Invercargill.
* 101 Mitre 10 stores, 60 Hammer Hardwares, 3500 staff.
* Annual sales about $1 billion.
Bunnings
* Owned by Australia's Wesfarmers.
* Came to New Zealand in 2001.
* Bought Benchmark Building Supplies.
* Invested about $500m in a decade.
* Mainly North Island focus.
* Auckland expansion planned.
* 47 stores: 21 Bunnings Warehouses, 24 small-format, two trade centres.
