Hunting tons of business

Elon YEARS. John Huntington and L' his brother. David. third generation in the family business, ran the Huntington Lumber Co. the way their dad-and granddad before him-had. No need to rock the boat in sleepy, little Hazelhurst, pop. 4,500, smack in the land-locked middle of Mississippi.

They did a pretty good contractor trade out of the puny, 3,000-sq. ft. space. (Okay, it was cramped beyond belief, but the help could locate most of the SKUs even if their customers couldn't.)

But Roy, their regional services rep from Do it Best, kept up his tirade-

"Man, you really need to build!"until whenever John saw the guy coming, he cringed, then hung his head and tried to look busy.

"But he made a strong case," John had to admit, when comered. "We had to do it; we'd outgrown our space."

So two years ago, lured in part by attractively low interest rates, and the detailed planning help Do it Best provided, the brothers caved. They set about building a brand-new store which not only doubled the size, oh no, it ballooned it to 15,000 sq. ft.five times its former footprint.

The year-to-year sales skyrocketed

82Vo, and margins mushroomed by six and a half points. Oh, and John doesn't hide from his Do it Best rep anymore. "Now I love him to death."

And customers, needless to say, are thrilled. Contractors now encounter expanded lines of plumbing, electric, hardware and paint, to name a few. Brand-new depafiments include tools, lawn & garden, and housewares. And a whole new customer base has darkened the doors-the walk-in warriors of town, reversing the 70/30 pro-toretail ratio to 3O7o pro and 707o retail, which, in this age of rigor mortis in home construction, has saved the day.

"I wonder what our last year would have been like if we had not done the expansion," says John with a mix of awe and horror. "Now, anybody who walks in can find anything they want."

The expansion goes beyond mere floor space. It was time to part with the easier, traditional ways of doing business, too ("We were old-school"), so (initially unwillingly, it's true) they decided to open on Saturdays for the first time ever. Not that the brothers were all that eager to jump out of bed on a weekend, but apparently their customers were.

"I was amazed!" John reDorts. "People kept coming up to me and saying,'Thank you!' -the walk-ins, the pros, even other business owners. It was a rewarding and a humbling, experience."

Staff has nearly doubled, to 20, too. "Experienced people would be best, but they're hard to find," he allows, so Huntington's able old-timers trained the new crew, with a bit of help from vendors. "We didn't know a lot about retailing, so it's been a learning experience."

Yet the launch went well. indeed. "We did a contractors' night before we opened, then held a huge grand opening-very successful," he reports. For several weeks, Huntington held a Saturday sale for which they used 750 five-gallon buckets and invited customers to fill them up and receive a 2O7o discount on everything those pails could hold.

Did the promotion generate new business? "Very much sol" John is happy to report. "I was surprised at the number of new faces. We'd mailed circulars to towns 20 miles away, and folks drove in for the bargains. Will they come back? Well, we'll be topof-mind."

A showroom was on the books for the original, now vacated, store, but times have been just too busy to get to it (a happy problem). Next year! Nor does the outfit retain a dedicated outside salesperson yet. "But we have a real good construction salesman, a l9year veteran. Still," John ponders, "we need to look into that...."

Meanwhile, Huntington installs the flooring it sells, thanks to a manager who's a longtime flooring guy. For other projects, the outfit recommends its trusted contractor customers-a win/win that keeps all three parties satisfied.

Huntington also operates a construction business of its own, run by both brothers, who each take on projects in turn as they roll in, making it a point to decline those upon which their own contractor customers have bid.

"We step away from that," John makes it clear. "But the construction business takes a lot of our time. With our new investment in the store, we'll need to balance it more. It helps in overhead-definitely-but we definitely need to focus attention on the store. In the past, the two businesses were split 50/50, but these days it's a little different. We did the addition at the right time. If we'd stayed where we were..." he shudders at the very thought. "There's very little construction business going on around here, so without the (new) walk-ins, where would we be?

"This year, we're seeing a few more higher-end houses -around here, that means over $200,000-but in general, it's repairs and additions. Contractors who, if you asked them to do decks a couple of years ago, would laugh-now they're eager for the business."

And these days, the Huntington brothers are well-equipped to serve them. The addition has made them virtually the only act in town-a onestop shopping experience other local stores can't equal. And John loves

Smartest In Siding

every minute of it.

Who knew? Not he. Not brother David. Not even their dad. He sent the two boys away to medical school (which, yes, they completed) but just when John was wondering what direction his life would then take, Dad made an offer. "Come home and work here while you figure it out." That was in 1985. and he's still figuring.

"If I hadn't come back after finishing college, I wouldn't have had the relationship I have with my dad. Growing up, he was always busy, so Dad and I weren't close. Now, we've travelled to Europe together and have a really good relationship. I would have missed out on that," he muses.

"I like the quality of life here in Hazelhurst-lots of timber around here, too. I like helping the little old lady looking for an air filter, and I like buildinga home for somebody. You're always helping people figure out a problem. Plus,I get to work with family, and it doesn't get much better than that."

- Reach Carla Waldemar at cwaldemar@comcast,net

By fames Olsen