SPOTLIGHT | ASHMORE PAINT
ashmore paint tewart Strayer has a long history with Benjamin Moore. It dates back to 1979, when he began painting houses using their products, logging long hours in the Houston heat. Several years later, Strayer had marriage in his near future and figured the respectable thing to do would be to get a full-time job. He was brought on board as a Benjamin Moore sales rep and worked for the company until 1993. “I was better suited to do my own thing,” admits Strayer, who by that time was feeling the entrepreneurial itch. He and his wife made the trip down to Corpus Christi, where the Ashmore Paint store was up for sale. Upon arrival, it was the laid-back, slower pace of Corpus Christi that first won him over. “We thought it would be a nice small town to raise a family… you could go to the nicest steakhouse in town wearing shorts and tennis shoes, and that fits me quite nicely.” The beach town’s easygoing vibe wasn’t the only star that seemingly aligned, though. The husband of the couple whom they were purchasing the store from shared a birthdate with Strayer, and he had also been a Benjamin Moore trade rep before purchasing Ashmore Paint and going off on his own—an identical set of circumstances that sealed the deal. “I thought it must be meant to be.” Strayer is the fourth set of hands to take the reins of Corpus Christi’s only locally owned full-service paint store, with Ashmore’s doors first opening in 1911. The previous owners had been members of Mid-South, and seized the opportunity to join the ALLPRO family when the merger happened. “The benefits are many,” relays Strayer. “There’s the obvious buying opportunities, the low minimums, we’re a one-store operation, so to be able to go to suppliers and have the low minimums (is great). You’ve got to stay competitive and ALLPRO has allowed us to do that. But an equal if not a greater benefit are the fall business meetings where you can go and just learn. And learn from experts in the industry and learn from each other. It’s just a great resource for learning how to operate a business.” Strayer offers similar praise for Benjamin Moore, who he knows better than most thanks to his background. “At the end of the day, they are the only national brand out there committed to supporting [independent dealers]—we’ve come to rely on that.” Throughout the course of the pandemic, Strayer felt more grateful than ever before to have these resources to draw from, seeing it as a unique opportunity to serve a market wherein larger chain stores were struggling with supply chain issues. “It’s really allowed us as an independent to thrive because we have multiple channels to get things. When we saw the challenges coming, we
Juanita Limon-Serna Store Manager
