Forward, march!

By Carla Waldemar

encompasses six Massachusetts yards ("the largest building materials company in Southeast Massachusetts," Doug allorvs), a countertop shop. a couple of K&B design centers. and a 46.000-sq. -ft distribution facility.

Don't touch that dial. There's more. In April 2003. Mid-Cape opened an ambitious, 14,000-sq.-ft. Complete Home Concepts megashorvroom in Hyannis-so outright successful that a second rvas launched this spring in Plymouth.

fDACK in 1896, Captain Oscar IlNickerson, commander of the schooner Abel W. Parker, decided he'd had enough of life at sea and purchased a lumberyard in Chatham, Ma. Now his heirs are building decks, not pacing them.

His grandson, J.A. (Jay), another family pioneer, joined the company in 1958 and soon after masterminded the first drive-through, self-service facility in New England (along with picking up a couple more yards). Today he wears the mantle of chairman of the board. Doug Bohannon. rvho signed on in 1972, sits in the president's office, "because they ran out of Nickersons," as he likes to joke about his rise like cream to the top. Well, that's not quite true. Sitting is an unknown pastime for the man rvho now runs the company-"run" is clearly the operative word for the head of Mid-Cape Lumber, which norv

This is the showroom to end all showrooms - truly one-stop shopping for pros. architects and their homeowner customers. The idea occurred to Doug rvhile visiting other expo facilities across the country. "They rvere fine for interiors. but didn't address the exterior at all. Professionals come in seeking materials for multiple areas of the home. and homeowners want examples of installed products. And what potential homeowner wants to drive all over in someone's pickup truck to make his choices?" Doug wants to knorv.

"For the first time, they can look at all variations in one spot." he saysAndersen windows ("our big push"), from entry-level to high-end. Exterior roofing. siding and trim oprions. Varieties of decking, from manmade to Philippine mahogany. A flooring department that segues from hardwood to carpet, slate and bluestone. Hardware selections in both interior and exterior applications. And, of course, an array of complete kitchens, where cooking classes and even TV shows originate.

Doug says, "We market ourselves as 'the everything store'-soup to nuts," along with every convenience knorvn to modern man to get them to the table.

Savvy to a pro's requirements, the Home Concepts Centers include conference rooms where a builder and his customer can senle things in quiet and privacy. "Or, they can simply send in their customers and we'll create a list and send it on to them," Doug offers.

"Our staff rvill take their clients through the chronological order of each project. They'll even design a kitchen. That's the hard one," he pinpoints. "The margins on kitchens are good," he agrees, "but, for the amount of stafftime involved, they have to be! Plus, there's the potential for failure: scrapes, shadings of color, installation mistakes. Yet, people remodel a kitchen every five to l0 vears." Can't turn your back on that kind of busiNESS.

A grand display of decks means money in the bank, as well. "It's hard to imagine driving around a neighborhood, trying to get ideas, when decks are at the back of a house and very difficult to see," he reasons.

Mid-Cape does install select items-kitchenso floors, storm doors, replacement windows-"but we don't want to get too far into it," Doug reasons, "because so many of our contractors are qualified."

The location turns out to be inspired, too. The Home Concepts Center adjoins an Ethan Allen store, which "we find very enhancing," Doug allows. "People go in there for ideas, then come next door and ask us, 'Know any builders?' We'll give them a list of names."

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decks means money in the bank. "lt's hard to imagine driving around a nieghborhood trying to get ideas, when decks are at the back of a house and difficult to see,"

And to keep those builders up to speed, The Home Concepts Center sponsors Builders University. gaining points in heaven, sure, but also black ink on the bottom line. "I started to look at the money we pay out to have things redone," Doug explains the vision. "Take windows, for instance. The homeowner calls it a 'product fault' if it leaks; that's the automatic assumption. But the manufacturer says,'installation problems: wasn't done right.' We'd experienced a number of problems with decks, skylights, roofing, even trusses, so I figured, let's educate our builders on how to do these things correctly."

Classes have grown to include seminars sponsored by OSHA and the local Chamber of Commerce and may feature an accountant ("builders aren't always good business managers") or a lawyer to help with contracts. ("If our builders are paying out to settle things like that, perhaps we have to wait our turn. It's self-preservation for us," Dous confides.

Architects and building inspectors also can amass CPO credits by attending sessions. which are ongoing yearround during the course of a couple of evening hours, including a break for pizza. And, Doug asserts, the day isn't far off when builders will need class credits to maintain their standing, too.

To staff the original center, MidCape invited its 300-plus employees to apply for positions. "We looked at past performance, their approach and education-a model I tried to follow" in cherry-picking the crew, which received in-house and vendor training as well. "Now, before the opening of our second center, we've had a year to prepare for it and have hired and trained people in everything from computer skills to delivery," he documents.

Hasn't been easy, the man has to admit. "The help situation around here dictates what you can do. It's a very expensive place to live; we've even recruited from the Carolinas. There are only so many good people around here, and the smaller independents tend to pick away at them."

To offset that, Mid-Cape inaugurated a HR department not long ago. "Before that, it was difficult at best to hire and keep people. Now, we offer benefits that are pretty aggressive: profit-sharing, health plan, promotion from within, a continuing education program, and monthly meetings where we solicit input. I look at it this way: You spend more time at work than with your family, so we become a family. We have to be together, so we need to learn to respect each other and get along. It's a challenge every day, but it helps to be grounded in the right philosophy. I've been here 34 years, and I'm the first non-family-member president in the company's history; they give me a lot of respect, and that's something to talk about to your grandchildren."

It hasn't always been a smooth path, he allows as he looks back on a couple of decisions. "We got a little aggressive; in opening a lot of stores, we incurred some ill-conceived debt. Now, we're moving slow and steady, doing market studies before we move. I see us as sort of expanding within for a year or so-retooling ourselves. We're a full-service lumberyard, so we're in competition with many different specialty operations, along with Home Depot, Lowe's and smaller independents. We try to appeal to a wide customer base-architects, builders, remodelers and homeowners. We walk the center line." And will probably be following it forward for another hundred years.

- A former award-winning LBM trade magaT.ine editor, Carla Waldemar writes frequently on the lumber and building material industry. Contact her at cwaldemar@mn.rr.com,