COMPETITIVE Intelligence
By Carla Waldemar
Ben’s M.O.
MICHIGAN DEALER takes its role as small-town supplier seriously and will expand into products the locals need—just as it did 20 years ago with LBM.
pen a map of Michigan, which looks like a mitten. Look harder and, nestled in the thumb, you’ll spot Marlette, pop. 8,000. It’s an agricultural community, where Ben’s Contractor Center serves as one-stop shopping for whatever’s going up— pole barns to new housing, add-ons to remodels—as it’s been doing since 1964. That’s the year when namesake Ben, a butcher in a grocery store, purchased the hardware store next door, which sold guns and convenience lumber, recounts his grandson, Jimmy Zyrowski, today’s owner. “We added building materials in the early 2000s— a big decision,” Jimmy testifies. “This is a small, rural community and there wasn’t a local source. People needed it. When my grandfather
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purchased the store, it sold guns. The community and the culture supported that, so it [sporting goods] continues to be a big part of what we are today. We sell guns and ammunition and supplies for archery, hunting, fishing and camping. Clothing. Lots of outdoor stuff. And sporting goods. “It helps draw people, and also our contactor base. Pleasing the pros is built into the outfit’s DNA. “Our big thing,” Jimmy continues, “is asking what they want—then saying ‘yes’ and making it happen: moving from ‘yes’ to making things go smoothly for them. It’s not easy,” he knows all too well, “but it’s good for them: Figure out the problem of the day, find different avenues. Think outside the box.” Nonetheless, “the last two years
n Building Products Digest n January 2022
were unlike anything we’d ever dreamed of—disrupted in everything from pick-up to buying. But, by being more creative than the next guy, you make it happen. Because of our location, we take care of everybody. Business is pretty evenly divided between walk-ins and contractors, so we carry a diverse mix to make that sustainable.” Sure, Ben’s is the only buildingsupply act in town, but other nearby towns ensure lively competition. “We’re surrounded by the big boxes; we’ve got ’em all. It only makes us work harder to make things happen, to take charge of individual customers’ needs.” In order to earn repeat business, “we can’t leave problems unresolved. In a small community, everybody knows everybody”—and everybody talks. And that’s actually Ben’s best marketing tool; referrals come by word of mouth. Of course, there’s also a website, “which we’ll improve in the future: See in which direction to go,” says Jimmy, who loves his job and links his own future (and perhaps that of his three kids) to the company’s continued success. Jimmy started in early. “Like anybody in a family business, you’re signed on before you’re born,” he jokes. “My first job here was mowing grass.” His job, ever since, has been marshaling Ben’s expansions. “We purchased the new location in 2012 when the owner of an existing yard was ready to retire. It was bigger, and strictly a lumberyard. It took us to the next level: more room, more trucks, more warehouses. “But pretty soon we were pushing Building-Products.com
