PGL: fifty yearsr one philosophy

GL BUILDING Products, Auburn. Wa.. now includes three divisions. l8 service centers. More than 500 employees. 45 trucks. 101 trailers. And annual sales exceeding $220 million.

And it all started 50 years ago with an unemployed salesman and $700.

Palmer G. Lewis spent about l2 years after college working at logging camps, a paperboard company and a small building contractor. He learned the business and the products and made solid contacts with producers. But he found his way of doing business differed drastically with that of his employers: they didn't believe in paying their bills until they were sued. Lewis, on the other hand, recognized the need to cultivate bus- iness relationships, to be personal and dependable.

He decided to strike out on his own, setting up shop in a tiny cubby hole underneath a stairway in Seattle's Hullin Terminal Building. He contacted a number of suppliers, asking to represent their products in Alaska on a commission only basis. Weyerhaeuser, insulation board producer Wood Conversion Co. and several paint and glass manufacturers agreed, figuring they couldn't lose.

"Many of them in 1940 had no concept of the Alaskan market," said Lewis. "They considered any sales they made up there as pure gravy."

So. in 1940. Lewis headed north to Alaska for a seven week sales trip financed by $200 he had saved and $500 his wife had received from her father.

Lewis made his first sale at a general store in the then rough-andtumble fishing town of Kodiak. But the first thing the proprietor wanted to know was: when are you coming back? Unreliable traveling salesmen were plentiful in Alaska and store owners needed someone on whom they could depend. Lewis built a reputation of dependability, making regular trips for years, spending six weeks there each spring and six weeks each fall lining up new customers.

By 1946, the Palmer G. Lewis Co. had a staff of four, among them Bob Petersen, who would succeed Lewis at the helm 20 years later. Through the years, the company grew steadily, adding new branches as sales and sales territories expanded.

Product lines grew to include nails. fasteners and doors from leading manufacturers as well as PGL private label products. Over 17,000 SKU's in total. The company even dabbled in the retail market, purchasing a small Alaskan chain, Superior Building Supply, in 1969. But the units were sold 1l years later to return focus to the company's core of wholesale distribution.

Story at a Glance

50th anniversary look at PGL Building Produsts...founder's hallmark of peronal sen ice and dependability carries on.

Today, 50 years later, 86-year-old Palmer G. Lewis has long since retired. The company, purchased in 1988 by Huttig Sash & Door, St. Louis, Mo., now goes by the banner PGL Building Products. But Palmer G. Lewis' philosophy continues to guide the company: "Be accurate and dependable. (it's) a lot more important than being smart or brilliant."