ligence Catch the waYe

By Carla Waldemar

nECESSION? What recession?

I\Apparently the folks at Big Creek didn't get the memo. The sixyard lumber company just moved its Santa Cruz. Ca.. location to a new building that-at 19,000 sq. ft.-is four times larger than its former niche.

Sure, revenue had dipped in recent months, as endured all across the country. Yet, feeling the pinch for space, the company had been searching for a bigger site for the past four years, says general manager Jim Johann, so when a location became available that met the California county's stringent business zoning laws, the verdict was full steam ahead.

According to Johann, "Our bosses" - second-generation owners Bud and Lud McCrary, still active at 82 and S0-"didn't look at the past couple of months' performance; they took the long-term vision. Their strategy didn't change. They built the new store based on future projections, not current revenue. They planned for the next 40, 50 years."

Plus, the yard gained far better visibility on a busy highway skimming Monterey Bay, aka surfers' paradise. Big Creek's business is 807o probuilders of custom homes and elaborate remodeling projects in this coastal beach community.

Nonetheless, says Johann, "Everything stopped last year, like somebody turned off the switch. But my feeling is, housing [demand] is driven by life. You have more and more people, and people need housing." True to his prediction, since July "business has started to pick up a bit."

And Big Creek is ready. The new store vaulted from "an old-school lumberyard, where you'd drive into a monster warehouse to proceed to a small retail space within it, to what's now a modern steel building," explains Johann with pride. And for the first time, Big Creek has windows for displays as well as covered space to keep lumber in top-quality condition.

Johann was able to add "a couple thousand SKUs, allowing us to be a better resource for our customers. Before, our hardware selection was extremely small; we struggled to carry what contractors needed. We've