Feature Story

THE MORE HEAVILY building material dealers focused on lumber, the more likely they were to experience a spike in revenues—due in no small part to escalating lumber prices.

Lumberyards’ revenues far outpace big boxes’

Lumberyards’ revenues soared far above gains for specialty dealers and big boxes, according to Webb Analytics’ 2022 Construction Supply 150.

High-flying lumber prices helped drive a 19.2% revenue increase by the 150 dealers analyzed, with vast differences in growth depending on how much wood a company sold. The group, which arguably accounts for the lion’s share of construction product sales in America, took in $373.73 billion last year from their U.S. operations. Participants’ operations in Canada and Mexico added another $20.57 billion, pushing the total to $394.30 billion, also a 19.2% gain from 2020.

The number of branches in the U.S. run by CS150 members grew 7.6% to 13,711, while there was a 32.1% increase in Canadian and Mexican branches, bringing the non-U.S. total to 847 and pushing the North American count to 14,558.

“The increase looks similar to the 18.6% rise in sales during 2020 that was reported by pretty much the same CS150 membership. But top-line appearances deceive,” said Craig Webb, president of Webb Analytics LLC and author of the report.

Largely because of softwood lumber’s 116% price increase between January 2020 and January 2022, lumberyards with manufacturing operations saw their revenues shoot up 58.6% in 2021 from the year before. This group—one of five subcategories tracked in the study—gets the majority of its revenue from sales of framing lumber as well as from manufacturing wood-based components like trusses, wall panels, and custom molding. Thus, a huge amount of what these dealers stocked sold for drastically more than it did just a few years ago.

Other subgroups benefited from lumber, too. Lumber sales at Home Depot rose 18% in the year ended Jan. 31, 2022, while at Lowe’s the lumber section’s revenue grew 16.5% and contributed one-fifth of the big box’s total revenue gain. But most other home centers and hardware stores don’t count on lumber as much to keep the doors open. As a result, overall sales for this subgroup increased just 11.1%. That’s half the increase that this group achieved in 2020, when COVID struck and launched a home improvement boom.

Meanwhile, specialty building dealers—companies that primarily sell non-lumber products, such as roofing, siding, and drywall—recorded a 26.5% gain in sales.

In 2020, CS150 companies that generated less than 70% of their revenues from professional builders and remodelers saw their sales increase nearly twice as much as companies that made over 90% of their sales to pros. But last year, the numbers reversed, with pro-oriented stores of all types seeing a 62% gain in revenue versus a still-not-shabby 28% climb at more retail-oriented outlets.

The CS150 is a tale of two cities based on how you measure the group. The list’s 17 home centers and hardware store chains are only 11.3% of the membership but account for 67.9% of the revenue—the result of having Home Depot and Lowe’s in the group’s ranks. In contrast, the 48 lumberyards that don’t have manufacturing operations accounted for 39.3% of the companies on the list, but only 1.7% of the revenue.

Among challenges, nearly half the companies rated finding truck drivers a 10 on a 1-to-10 scale of difficulty.

Just under 50% said they have started letting some em-

ployees work from home permanently. Roughly one-third of respondents said they have increased the number of days a worker can take off, and one-third have stopped requiring a year of employment before a worker can go on vacation.

And while all this effort finding workers has been going on, there’s been remarkable increase in ecommerce activity and electronic communications. In last year’s CS150, 56.7% of respondents said their customers could check their bills online. In this report, 72.7% say they can do the same. Through 2020, a customer could pay online at 42.3% of the member companies that revealed their status. This year, that share is 58.6%. Meanwhile, the percentage of dealers who said customers can check whether a product is in stock more than doubled to 29.8%. And BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick up In Store) was possible at 39.8% of this year’s dealers, up from 22.7% last year.

Webb estimated the list represents about three-quarters of all sales at building material and supplies dealers, excluding paint stores.

The full 52-page PDF report can be downloaded at webb-analytics.com.

The Construction Supply 150

Rank Company/City/State Primary 2021 2020 Sales % business sales ($ sales ($ change, Locations Locations emphasis* millions) millions) 2021 v. ’20 2021 2020

1 The Home Depot, Atlanta, Ga. H $138,920.0 $122,158.0 13.7% 2,006 1,987

2 Lowe’s, Mooresville, N.C. H $90,348.0 $84,503.0 6.9% 1,737 1,734

3 Builders FirstSource, Dallas, Tx. M $19,900.0 $12,800.0 55.5% 565 550

4 ABC Supply, Beloit, Wi.

S $14,800.0 $12,100.0 22.3% 839 799 5 Menards, Eau Claire, Wi. H $13,086.2 $11,800.0 10.9% 346 345 6 Ferguson Enterprises, Newport News, Va. S $12,959.0 $11,364.2 14.0% 1,470 1,452 7 US LBM, Buffalo Grove, Il. M $9,220.0 $4,265.1 116.2% 441 280 8 84 Lumber, Eighty Four, Pa. M $7,900.0 $4,700.0 68.1% 272 262 9 Beacon, Herndon, Va. S $6,642.0 $5,916.7 12.3% 446 524 10 Harbor Freight Tools, Calabasas, Ca. H $6,000.0 $5,400.0 11.1% 1,200 1,087 11 SRS Distribution, McKinney, Tx. S $5,755.3 $3,796.3 51.6% 595 405 12 GMS, Tucker, Ga. S $3,636.7 $2,670.0 36.2% 337 234 13 Floor & Decor Holdings, Atlanta, Ga. S $3,433.5 $2,425.8 41.5% 162 135 14 UFP Industries, Grand Rapids, Mi. ML $2,698.4 $1,695.7 59.1% 65 57 15 Foundation Building Materials, Santa Ana, Ca. S $2,652.0 $1,077.3 146.2% 221 125 16 Carter Lumber, Kent, Oh. M $2,565.0 $1,750.0 46.6% 168 167 17 Kodiak Building Partners, Highlands Ranch, Co. M $2,490.5 $1,876.2 32.7% 111 103 18 Northern Tool + Equipment, Burnsville, Mn. H $1,950.0 $1,450.0 34.5% 121 120 19 Sutherland Lumber, Kansas City, Mo. H $1,450.0 $1,306.3 11.0% 50 50 20 McCoy’s Building Supply, San Marcos, Tx. M $1,423.6 $1,073.8 32.6% 92 91 21 Lansing Building Products, Richmond, Va. S $1,326.2 $991.7 33.7% 114 114 22 Service Partners (TopBuild), Daytona Beach, Fl. S $1,272.2 $926.7 37.3% 155 75 23 LL Flooring, Richmond, Va. S $1,152.3 $1,097.7 5.0% 424 410 24 Parr Lumber, Hillsboro, Or. M $990.9 $644.0 53.9% 43 36 25 Foxworth-Galbraith Lumber, Plano, Tx. M $927.0 $588.5 57.5% 35 35 26 Contractors Warehouse, Roseville, Ca. L $844.8 $768.0 10.0% 14 14 27 Matheus Lumber, Woodinville, Wa. L $750.0 $416.0 80.3% 10 8 28 Ganahl Lumber, Anaheim, Ca. M $666.8 $502.3 32.7% 11 11 29 Westlake Ace Hardware, Lenexa, Ks. H $603.9 $550.7 9.7% 151 145 30 Riverhead Building Supply, Calverton, N.Y. M $555.0 $400.0 38.8% 19 18