New Mexico dealer does big business in fences

FENCES ARE big business for'shofner t' Lumber Company in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They're big because Shofner runs a complete service and promotes it with dominant displays of fence patterns, with hard-to-ignore idea literature, and with tr"*.pupir and yellow-page advertising.

How big?

Owner Frank Shofner expects to install close to 13 miles of fencing, nearly all residential, this year . and that's nearly 50 percent greater volume than last year. And a nice increase is in progress' too, for sales of fence materials to the do-ityourself homeowner,

This year's expected 70,000 linear feet of fencing includes a sizable bundle of contracts in one of the largest home developments in that community of 300,000 people. Rio Ranchos Estates is developing residential tracts on its 55,000-acre holdings, and Shofner Lumber is erecting anywhere flom 100 to 250 feet of fence for every house.

Shofner plunged into the fence business in a big way only four years ago. He has three crews of two men each on his installations; last year he had two crews.

How do you build up a profitable sPecialty business like this one?

Naturally, it's a combination of things done right. And doing them right may defer profits for a time, but like a doc' tor'S education it can really pay ofi.

Nearly 50 percent of Shofner's fence business, he estimates, comes from refer' rals, mostly from previous customers. He bird-dogs his crews on quality of work, and delivers the grades of materials agreed to.

Story dI s Glqnce

lmportant tips on how thls New Mexico lumber dealer sells fences western woods are preferred. Fence sales are up 50% display samples hypo customer interest in fences.

Full-scale displays are worth every foot of space they requirg states this lumber dealer. Eight sample sections of various styles of fencing are set up along the 150foot frontage of the Shofner store and warehouse.

An estimated 25,000 people drive past the display on busy Louisiana Blvd. every <iay, and the number of drop-ins is impressive. Any B' section that fails to stimulate orders is replaced with another style.

Every other week, Shofner Lumber carries a display advertisement in the morning and evening newspapers. One of 16 advertisers who share a full page, it usually selects fencing for its four-star special.

Well kept up counter stocks of literature and mailing of stuffers with statements round out the Shofner o'balanced power" promotion. Most popular item on the counter, he states, is Western Wood Products Association's Fences booklet.

What are this firm's best sellers in materials for fencing? Wood is the choice for at least three-fourths of the jobs, and western red cedar runs more than three to one ahead of any other lumber species. For board-and-batten and board-on'board styles, Ponderosa pine is a strong seller.

Favorite style in Albuquerque currently is tlre cedar picket split to 3/+ x 2t/n-inch size and laid up tight on post and rail framing. About 9O percent of all fences are ( high, and increasing numbers are being installed for privacy around pools and patios.

"A real selling point for cedar," says Shofner, o'is that it's free of rnaintenance, if the owner will let it weather naturally to a silvery gray color. We continue to tell the landscapers the best way to finish a fence is not to finish it. And this goes for decks and patios, too."

The fence crews set the posts up in concrete, mainly to assure adequate sturdiness against winds, which occasionally gust up to 75 miles an hour. Shofner noted that more block walls blow down than his wood fences.

A novel idea for the generally quiet winter season that Shofner passes on to other dealers is concentrated selling of outdoor basketball units for Christmae Last year his firm sold l0O or so, and every man he could muster was out putting them up on Christmas eve.

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