Ganahl Lumber's centennial

lltALK INTO any branch of UU Ganahl Lumber Co. today and you will probably be impressed by the'wide variety of products they sell or the vitality of the sales force or the relative youth of the firm's management team. It is an ironic contrast to the image one usually has of a l00-year-old company. But it's true. 1984 marks the centennial anniversary of Ganahl Lumber Co., a company with a rich historical past and a vital, growth-oriented future.

It all began back in 1884 when an Austrian immigrant named Christian Ganahl moved West from St. Louis, Mo. He had been in the lumber business in that city and when he learned that the John Bryson lumber yard in Los Angeles was up for sale, he seized the opportunity.

The C. Ganahl Lumber Co. flourished and served its share of custom- ers nmong the 22,W people who made up Los Angeles in the 1880s. By l9(X there were already branch locations in Los Angeles, Redondo Beach, El Segundo and Santa Bar-

Story at a Glance

Aggressive retailer hits 100 year mark still family owned and managed . . . four retail stores plus milling operation... intentions include further expansion considered one of the best independent firms in tough Southern Calilornia market.

bara. He then recruited Charles Grim from one of his competitors (Griffith Lumber) to open and run the newest branch yard in Anaheim. The new Ganahl-Grim Lumber Co. was also a success as building activity in agricultural Orange County increased.

ln 1922 Christian's nephew, Ernest Ganahl, moved south from Berkeley, Ca., to work in the lumber business. He bought his uncle's share of the Anaheim operation and became partners with Charles Grim. In 1927 Ernest opened another lumber yard in the mountain resort town of Lake Arrowhead and hired his friend, Harold Kahn, to run the operation for him.

While the Great Depression of the 1930s was taking its toll on most businesses, the Ganahl operations survived. Sales at the Lake Arrowhead yard grew, perhaps because of the

Hollywood stars who could afford summer homes there. In fact. sales at the Lake Arrowhead yard were higher than those in Anaheim during the depression and they carried the company through this dark economic period.

Ernest also hired a young man by the name of Ted Payne to work in Anaheim and drive trucks up the twoIane dirt road to the Lake Arrowhead yard. Ted, now 82, still works one day a week at the Anaheim yard.

In the 1930s Ernest Ganahl's competition 'included such operations as Barr Lumber, Brown & Dauser, Buena Park Lumber, Garden Grove Lumber (which was recently acquired by Ganahl Lumber Co. in February, 1984), Patten & Davis, Gibbs Lumber and Santa Ana Lumber. In 1934 Charles Grim passed away and Ernest Ganahl took over management of the company. Eventually, he bought out the Grim family's interest and in 1938 the name was changed to the Ernest Ganahl Lumber Co.

Ernest Ganahl and Company ran the two-branch operation throughout the thirties and forties and when World War II came along, the milling machinery at 501 E. Lincoln Ave. in Anaheim turned out ammo boxes for the military. In 1946 Ernest's son John returned home from the war and joined his father's business. He went to work in the mill and as Orange County grew, so did the milling operation at Ganahl Lumber. During the late forties and fifties, John became involved in producing cabinets for schools in the area. In 1959 Ernest passed away and John Ganahl took over the family business.

As has always been customary in the family, John's sons and daughters worked at the lumber yard part-time and summers while they were going to school. Peter Ganahl joined the company full+ime in 1968 and worked first in sales and later in the company's fledgling computer operation.

A few years later, in 1972, the company acquired a third yard, the former Hayward Lumber in Corona, Ca.

When his father died in 1973, Peter took over as president of Ganahl Lumber Co. That same year his brother, John Ganahl, Jr., who is now controller of the company, went

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.,City,,, I;:u m,&6r h*,,opened air"new stCIie in:kaside,0r. . , Gordon Laird has purchased Bennett Lumber in Bellingham, Wa., renanring it the Qrsat Aweriwn f"gd. aldre elingtoadd 250sq. ft. ofspace...,

"'I rr' l;umber Ca is,llrc neu' name for Cla$ Lumber Co., Pahrump, Nv., recently purchased by Floyd and Audrey Davis from Jim and C-onnie Clark

Boise Cascgde BuildiAS M&teriali.,Center, rsid€, Ca., has closed its retail unit, but will,,continue to s€ll coirtraat$rs rind builders ' Boyiiew Building Materials, fioquiam, Wa., has been renamed ::":Lei,ee Lumber, Izc., by new owners Jetry Erickson and,'Meiiiil Albert.

,:,,,t,,::r:,:irriThGif$grCliantf$$ga:im moved from Sacramentoto Dallias, Tk., where parent co. Michigan Genefal s lgcated . . .,,, r,:t,, '',,'.

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';t;1;,',,,,,"&i&E' LilrntterCo., which

' riil has just completed extensive rernodeling of its Boulder Creek, Ca., facility, will open a Gilroy, Ca., unit Oet. I Magnuson Lumber Co. has opened a new 7000 sq. ft. store across the street from its former location in Castle Dale, Ut....

Geib Lumber Co., Vista, Ca., is

,,r,,:,,, &ddittg two new buildings .: ' Vacaville Lum.ber Co., Vacaville,, Ca., has been purchased by ,/.P.

"' Dolan Lumber Co,, San, Pablo, -.,Co.lgs stsre No. 7 inits chain

Lumber Co., a unit of The Terry Companies, Tarzana,

':iCb.:'.'i:has purchased the assets of Dietel Lurr7ber,,,,Co.,,,'also',ih Bwbank, Ca., for an undisclosed amount. .

,,r:,,1, Hd.., Wheelwdght and Lloyd Barnes have purchsd ,,We€b ;wtight::.Lumfur'':'Co., "Ogden, Ut., from Pacific Western lndustries, lnc., Salt Lake City, Ut., which hdd aquiied it from the lYheel:

..Nattpnal Lumfur & fupptf-,(6.;"' S6nta a, Ca., has opened a new unit in Covina, Ca, ,',r: . Ham€ Debot opnastoreinHuntington Beach, Ca., part of a plan for about 6 stores in Orange County and as many as 30 in So,' Ca. ,, . HomeClub will move its Hq. from I Long Beach, Ca., to Fullerton, Ca., where it is opening a new ,,"stor€, part of the 15 slated to open within the next year

Rim Farest Lumber Co;, Lake ifurowhead, C8., suffered an estimated $200,000 damage in,, a fire whicb,a California Dppt. of Forestry spokesman blamed on ar,son . ,., . Viney'Milliken Lumber Co., Covin&, Ca., had $25,0@ damages whsn a tno-stoiry storage shedburned...

,,,.A I l.::Ca 88/. Fot:ggg'":''p, a;Att c *; Ctrino, Ca., hasanew 10,000sq. ft. plywood storage buildinl Wall Dry Kiln, C-arson, Ca., hasadded a lumber storage building KID Cddsr"':::"' Suibly, Hayward, Ca., has,,a nSil yafd Additio$ ofrrir'l 81000 sq:;'lft. 'ri:r:i- :i:'rrrrr "': "..i:,.. :,",",. l',.'l.::l'' -:1"' .i-:l:,ri..- ..':lr:,r':, r'i'il]i"r' :':::t.a.' :"':t" Wickes Co.shas sold Gambles, a hardgoods and lurnber products distributor, to Gambles, Inc., a group headed by Wayne E. Waldera, a 3O-year Gamble employee Eugene-Willomette Lumber Co., Eugene, Or., has '4914 its Hayward, Ca.,,,:,:officq,i Chuck,Lewis was mgr:'. .''

',,'::,, Lo iofti,Pacific Corp., Port: land, Or., has offered to purchase stock from holders of 50 or fewer of its shares for the day's NYSE closing price plus a $5 bonus up to Sept. 28 Brazier Forest Products Inc., Tacoma, Wa., has filed Chap. ll bankruptcy for its subsidiary oper:ating sa*mills in TaComa and Arlington, Wa.; the Brazier wholesale,subsidiary' in Tacsma and the Molalla, 0r., sawmill are not involved in thefilingat thistime...

Cascade Empire Corp, has moved into new offices at 5670NW Five oaks'Dr., Suite 200, Hillsboro, Or.97123 . ,. Di Siorgio 'Corp;;, SanrFrancisco, Ca,; is selling its Klamath Falls, Or., $awm,i9 gperation ;',: . :':': rrriii:

EomWfaf,tg opnd:iar sgond

!@eii'Co. ;',l**nh6use store last month .,,. .,8,5 lAke'i:,:8ail$ing ,:,:,,,,,,.Cwtefr,::'',.6' 17'.$00 .-.. ft.'i-ltt -ber"l'' yard/home cerger will be.o,peneg in Loveland, Co., this month, by Pat Giesey, former Payless Cashways v.p. . Entz-White,Phoenix, Az., ,,:,:i'.f6u6*iA 1952 as a lumberyard ,and hardw,ar€:;r,,,$toic! hs$' filgd Chapter ll bankruptcy.

111L:'.'

':rl.rilt*gborute, Or:, has a new:??zil Value Hardware store opening this moAth;'rffenry Boschma and Deryl Ferguson, olillfers,i ,.;1,;1. Cot-ter &.Co. willr,open a 356;000riq. ft. distribution center in Woodland',,Ca.r,,late nextyear...

,.:....... biamohd Lumbel is starting to :rem0del its 9 stores,in the Sacramento, Ca., area, part of a three r::',yg6r:program to spruce q,p all,97 storeq;in &e dtain;,,Hq.has n

" ):::' Pon:,Sy bAn, Ini., has m6ved to a newlmationinToppenish, Wa. Imperial Wholesale, Salt Lake City, Ut., has a. new office in Broomfield (Denver), Co., Gail Pierce, m$. . '. . Western States Plywood, Santa Fe Springs, Ca., tras been acquired by CoEIco, Ltd., Fountain Valley, Ca., *iqh Leonard H. Crofoot, Western States pres., becoming CoElco's chairman of the board . '