COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE

Go, Kentuckiana!

A- gurus advise us strivers to learn a new word a day. Well, today is Monday, and my new word is entuc iana.

It s the location of PC ome Center, based in New Albany, In. right across the hio River from Louisville, y. Get it “I can loo out my window and see the city s yline right now,” declares owner avid Stemler. e wandered into the industry bac in soon after college by signing on at an outfit called PC Paneling the company s first hire. ne of his initial tas s was helping in the move from a converted bowling alley into a former ice-house down the street, which meant trundling the inventory Armstrong ceilings, plastic moulding and such by hand, for lac of a for lift. he next move, in the mid s, was to what once was a rollers ating rin to accommodate the outfit s increased inventory, which now included lumber, windows and doors, moulding and trim.

When the company s owner died unexpectedly in , avid, now , was faced with a choice to ma e in a hurry buy the business, or wor for somebody else. Easy decision, save for one fact he young man had no cash.

With the help of his former boss s estate and an Andersen Windows distributor, he was able to ta e over the company and all it entailed including the dubious privilege of wor ing -hour wee s . Seven years later, PC had again outgrown its footprint and sought yet-another site. his time, no ice house, no s ating rin avid decided to build from the ground up. Since then, than s to three expansions, it now occupies , s . ft. upon seven acres, and its employee count of has mushroomed to over manning what s become the largest independent, family-owned showroom in entuc iana.

But why stop there In , avid purchased a former Stoc Building Supply yard in Sellersburg, In., minutes and a world away. “ ou don t want to do that,” insiders counseled. But he did. Why “Because it was so cheap ” avid laughs. And so lucrative, he might add. he . -acre site anchors a , s . ft. building in what s now entuc iana s biggest locally-owner lumber and hardware

A PERFECT COMPLEMENT to its sister lumberyard location in Sellersburg, PC’s home center in New Albany has expanded three times to become the largest kitchen, bath, window and door showroom in the region.

store where Louisville s contractors cross the river to purchase their lumber and a whole lot more.

“ he two stores complement each other they re not the same mar et,” attests avid. “ hey couldn t be more different,” he points out. he New Albany store carries everything from the ground up except drywall. It woos the ladies with its showroom displays of cabinets, itchens, lighting. he site in Sellersburg draws contractor customers with “big piles of lumber a large pro lumberyard, with millwor and such one store plush, the other rough, a mom-and-pop-type atmosphere,” he explains. “We mar et bac and forth. Sellersburg is li e a large neighborhood hardware store, friendly and helpful. It got us through the recent down-time. he right people there turned it around.”

Spea ing of people “We hire for a good personality, then offer training. We tell them, he more you now, the more you re valuable, and the more money you can ma e. ”

PC deals primarily with contractor customers nearly of business is driven by pros. et in avid added a glitzy new showroom, as if catering to wal -ins. Again, why “For the Wow Factor,” he explains. “ o give people confidence in us. wo hundred thousand dollars of Andersen and Marvin displays and a lovely s ylight. Plus, if we ever have another recession , it s something to fall bac on.”

Meanwhile, he s got the pros in his poc et those builders and remodelers of custom homes are going crazy with new business in these days of C I . “ ur outside salesmen are a big in uence in bringing in the big-volume builders. hey re relationship people,” declares the boss.

“We ta e super-care of our customers, and do things right if we screw up, we say so. And we now the customer is always right even when he isn t . Word-ofmouth is our best advertising because our builders are in love with us and they tal to each other.”

PC s contractor customers have proved loyal allies. “ hey li e us because,” avid stops to ponder “one, we re the only independent left in the metro. ur service is superb. We scramble to ma e good on on-time, in-full deliveries.” PC also rewards its strongest pros with trips li e s iing in Colorado or sailing in warm waters “paid for out of my poc et, not vendors .”

Worried about any competition Worried might not be the right word annoyed is more li e it when potential customers blindly head to the many boxes populating Louisville “yet they expect so much more service from us than the mediocre level they get for what they consider the supposedly cheaper prices at the boxes.” here s a huge difference, however. “We re not corporate-owned, so we can ma e decisions on the y. We try to do things right no shortcuts. We wor on continuous improvements and treating customers with respect. We continue to learn, though it s not always easy we re always wor ing on it.”

If only the economy would cooperate, right “Appraisals and prices on homes are sliding downward, but still we re having a record year. han s to C I , customers want dec s, outdoor spaces, more home pro ects. Lovely, if we can get the materials et the rising price of lumber, by supply-and-demand, has helped us good margins. ur city brags about a casino gambling boat on the river, but with lumber prices changing twice a wee , I don t need a boat to gamble ” he laughs. avid, , is far from counting the days years until retirement. “I have no ids, so the business is my baby, my family. I li e to build things, to see the pretty showroom, so I have no interest in selling out. I m not staying in it for the money I love to give money away, to the Salvation Army, to cancer funds. I gave out green light bulbs for a C I -awareness cause. My plan for the company is, to eventually give half of it to my employees and half to the trust of a charity.”

In the meantime, it s full steam ahead and another record-setting year, with a few twea s along the way to ensure PC s continued success “I ve learned that you can t be everything to everybody Stic to your niche ”