84 Lumber to open local stores by Sept. 21

Competition is building in the construction supply sector.

84 Lumber, based in Eighty Four, Penn., will open three new stores in southwest Missouri by Sept. 21, according to public relations spokesperson Shawn Ahearn.

The company will open its first southwest Missouri store July 27 in Bolivar. A Neosho branch will open Aug. 24 and an Ozark showroom will open Sept. 21.

84 Lumber in Bolivar

Mike Wisniewiski, area manager for the three new stores in southwest Missouri, said the Bolivar store was completed in mid-June and the staff has been busy building racks and bringing in inventory for the July opening.

The Bolivar store, located at 2551 W. Broadway, will be open 7 a.m.-8 p.m. weekdays, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday.

Grand opening events will include a monster truck demonstration and several prizes, including a $500 shopping spree at the store and several $25,000 scratch-off tickets.

Company sales representatives Jace Adams and Dwayne Ashlock are already in the field working with area contractors, Wisniewiski said.

"We are glad to be in town and hope we can help people out," he said.

84 Lumber offers computerized bids and pricing, with a 30-day price guarantee. It also provides financing options and delivery.

Midwest expansion

Prior to this year, 84 Lumber concentrated its Missouri presence on the east side of the state, mostly in and around St. Louis, Ahearn said.

In recent months, 84 Lumber has aggressively targeted not just Missouri, but the Midwest region for expansion of its operations.

"Prior to the spring of 2000 there were no stores located in Arkansas. Now there are four," Ahearn said.

At the same time the Bolivar store opens, new stores will open in the South in Mississippi, Georgia and North Carolina, Ahearn said, adding that in the near future, the company will concentrate its expansion efforts in the western United States.

Doing business

84 Lumber relies on building contractors for about 70 percent of its business, Ahearn said.

Contractor sales representatives are kept busy catering to the needs of construction professionals while the 20,000-square-foot walk-in facilities service the do-it-yourself customers.

Each store employs about 10 to 12 full-time and six to 12 part-time workers. In recent years the company has expanded its product lines from approximately 5,000 products to include more than 13,000 products to provide one-stop shopping for building supplies, Ahearn said.

Company background

84 Lumber Company was founded in Eighty Four, Penn., in 1956 by Joe Hardy and his brothers as a cash-and-carry business.

The company now owns 403 stores in 31 states, not including the new facilities in southwest Missouri, Ahearn said.

In the early days, along with the original store in Eighty Four, Hardy opened a few other locations in the tri-state area of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia. Next came widespread expansion on the eastern seaboard, in the South and in the Midwest with the addition of several new stores each year.

In 1994 Hardy's daughter, Maggie Hardy Magerko, became president of 84 Lumber, although her father still takes an active part in company decision making.

By the time she was 5 years old, Maggie Hardy was a regular visitor to the corporate offices in Eighty Four, Penn., and to the stores established at that time in the East.

As a teenager she worked at the Bridgeville, Penn., store to learn the business from the ground up.

Reaching out beyond U.S. boundaries, the company established its international sales division in April 1998. International sales leapt from $300,000 in 1998 to $2.7 million in 1999.

The company exports complete home packages and building materials abroad to the countries of China, Switzerland, Australia, Bulgaria, Korea, Turkey, Japan, Germany and South America, according to Magerko.

Also, 84 Lumber and four other suppliers of building materials were recently honored with "Exporter of the Year" awards in Pittsburgh, Penn.