etitive

By Carla Waldemar

(fl1eft in a year." Mike Martin

\-,told a reporter who was chasing a story back in '03. "We're turning a new leaf."

It must have fallen from that legendary tree with golden apples, because these days, A.D. Martin Lumber Co., Riverton, Wy. (population 12,000), is regularly reeling in $4 or $5 million, "and probably $6.5 this year." Its truss plant is turning away business, and a second store in DuBois, Wy., accounts for another million in revenue.

The leaf has turned, indeed-or, to put it in Wyoming economics, the oil has gushed and people can't throw money at him fast enough. "If the oil fields are active," Mike explains, "it leaks into every sector. People buy stuff; they spend the money. It drives home prices up; they're building what they normally wouldn't build."

True. too. of folks on the Indian reservation on which Riverton sits, amid more fields of oil and gas that netted the tribes $ll million in a recent distribution. "The banks ran out of cash that Friday," Mike recalls. "The reservations have lots of good carpenters as well as a building trades learning program, so it give us lots of opportunity, too."

Then there's what he blesses as a "very active senior community. We've been involved with Sentoma, putting up eight duplexes in a development"-one of six major properties of the corporation for which Martin Lumber has served as key supplier. "And these retirees have enough money to pay for very nice houses," he adds as a footnote that's proved lucrative.

Credit where credit is due? Aw. shucks. "I'm a really poor businessman; I'm more of a people person," Mike modestly asserts.

That helps explain the near-zero tumover in the yard he took over from his dad and uncle, founded by his grandfather in the '50s. "My people know the ropes. They work 50 hours a week," but never on Sundays, he says. He's not going there, he's decided.

He notes, "They get good benefits and wages," backed by an aggressive bonus plan that pays 5Vo of a figure arrived at by viewing sales, margins and income, paid monthly when the numbers justify. "Everybody gets the same-me, down to the drivers-and it's immediate profit they can touch$690 apiece last month, and we've paid a bonus every month this year."

Martin's mentoring program pays off in staff retention, too. Acting as such a trainer is voluntary. "Some people are just naturally good at that," notes the boss. Count him in that number. To embellish product knowledge with an overriding service ethic is his forte. "I'm out on the floor, so if I like what you're doing, I'll tell you"-and if not, he offers up an example of a better way.

One new facet of his hiring program is a mandatory physical evaluation at the local hospital before signing on. He says, "We've found back problems people didn't even know they had," ruling out a bad fit before it happens. The company also employs a 90-day probation period to weed out unsuitable employees.

Martin evaluates its customers in the same way. "In this little town, you know who the builders are-so if you want 'em, you romance 'em," Mike says. "And if they're too picky or disorganized, I'll change the pricing level, charge them more, and I'll tell them why: 'You return 120 out of 200 studs, and I buy good lumber."'

Attracting new business in this boomtown presents no problem to a yard that's tops. "Outside sales? We tried that, but it just didn't work out," Mike begins the story. Instead, "the builders find us. It's a backwards way to work," he apologizes, "but it does work."

Mike chooses other tools to be proactive. "I help out our customers by offering seminars," he says. "I'11 put together an attorney, a banker and an accountant at a dinner for our best

.u!,o-"rr. They're all very good builders, but not very good businessmen. If they fall down anywhere, it's in how they manage their money."

Mike also personally leads selfhelp seminars, cornballing it as Bubba to inject a little humor. And he sends each of his staffers to training sessions offered by Mountain States Lumber & Building Material Dealers Association, packing them and their wives off to Denver, Co., as a learning tool-cum-perk.

Launching the truss plant in 1984 added both to builder service and the bottom line. "We also sell to other yards, which I view as colleagues, not competition; I've built very good relationships with their GMs," he says. "But we need to get bigger. Last year, we put all our profits into the truss plant, and we still need more, to modernize. Last year I farmed out at least $60,000 of business because we couldn't handle it, and you can't let down your builders. You've got to think of your clients."

With those clients in mind, he opened a second store in DuBois, 80 miles up the road, because vendors refused to deliver to this tiny community rich with "very qualified builders" putting up fancy vacation homes for the overflow crowd from Jackson Hole. "We'd delivered to that area for years-I remember riding with my dad each Saturday-so with a store there, we can give better service: not just lumber, as in the past, but tools and all the rest," he says.

Call it Rocky Mountain time or whatever: Martin Lumber finally got around. three years later. to staging the facility's grand opening. It proved to be an event worth waiting for, complete with sales draws, contests for nailing and fly casting into a five-gallon bucket, prizes, live music and a chuck wagon feast.

The celebration had to wait because Mike's been busy being a good citizen. He launched a Builders Forum, which he chairs, as an arm of the Chamber of Commerce "to give builder a little more voice." He's been instrumental in changing the town's archaic coding ordinances and in registering and bonding contractors "to get rid of the fly-by-nights."

He also spearheaded a drive to construct a skateboard park to serve at-risk kids. "It's been almost too successful," he says as he heads out the door to lead a reconstruction session. "They've worn the plywood off the ramps."

Success seems built into his genes. "The next two or three years look pretty good, too, driven by the oil fields," he calculates. "It brings in crews, and they need housing. These are easy customers," the kind he treasures. "No returns, and they love to spend money. If we opened at 5 a.m., they'd be waiting there."

- A former award-winning LBM trade magazine editor, Carla Waldemar writes frequentLy on the building material industry. Contact her at cwaldemar@mn.rr.com.