Motown Marketing in

McMinnville: The Supremes

By Carla Waldemar

\ZOU know what happens when I you give a kid an inch: he'll take a mile. Well, in the case of young Ryan Moore, make that five counties.

Ten years ago, the good folk of McMinnville, Tn., were hard-pressed to recall that the family's sleepy little lumberyard existed. It had limped along, suffering from neglect since the heyday of its founding in 1967 by the Moore brothers, whose energy soon turned to real estate. So. in 1995. when the pair agreed to divide their holdings, Supreme Building Products fell to Ryan's father, J. David Moore. Spurred to bring it back to life, he swore to become the number-one yard in town. (Hold on-make that the entire region.)

Ryan headed the uphill battle. When his father made him v.p. of sales and marketing, he told the boy, "It may not be the most prestigious job, but it'll put food on the table. Do whatever you want to do."

"There are over 40,000 people in the area, and the market's pretty com- petitive," the young man notes. "We're up against a couple of hardware stores, some independent yards, and a couple of the boxes."

As a media-kid of the 2l st Century, Ryan was all into make-overs: "We didn't have an image, a presence, an identity-nothing we were known for. Not even a logo or a jingle"-a deficit he considers "shocking. On our phone-hold, people were actually hearing a competitor's ad on the radio. So I took on what I call the 'image makeover."'

He contacted Radio Concepts USA, a Minnesota firm, to come up with a unique jingle, "and if we didn't like it, we didn't have to pay. I was pretty picky. It had to fit our market perfectly. To be different from other radio sponsors, we customized it, using my own voice. And to be effective, you have to use it consistently, not just twice a day." Ryan bought multiple spots and cut a deal so that the oneminute slots ran longer than 60 seconds.

Today everyone in McMinnville can sing along ("Where...the customer's always su-pre-e-e-me. Supreme! [beat...beat] Building Products"). "They're even singing it at Shoney's," Ryan triumphs. "Our d-i-y business has jumped 357o. And for the past l0 years, we've been voted'Best of the Best' by the newspaper's People's Choice."

But it doesn't stop there. "Once we get 'em in the door, they get height- ened customer service-'Supreme customer service' - especially our pros, who are 75Vo of our business, and we love it that way. But d-i-y's pay cash," he adds, which balances the 30-to-60-days out on the contractors' books. "We send out 20 truckloads a day; we promise lol4 or 4/10 delivery (order in by 10, out by 4, and viceversa) and bump our best contractors up to the front. We also offer them free blueprint takeoffs, so thoroughly detailed they can take them to the bank."

"There's a special contractor entrance so they feel special. Pros can bring their clients in and turn 'em loose."

And, under a new umbrella called Moore Partners, the Moores partner with builders to co-develop subdivisions, helping with funding to build spec homes-"a great way to control construction, because they use only our products," Ryan adds. "They get the builders' fees, and we can fill the homes with innovative products-like a showroom-to let folks know what's out there."

Supreme recently added an actual showroom as well-12,000 sq. ft. that "acts as our catalyst for growing the business. There's a special contractors' entrance so they feel special. Pros can bring their clients in and turn 'em loose. And it doesn't look like your typical building center, either: James Hardie siding, a stone foundation, tall columns," which generate pretty tall margins, too. "It's easy to upsell here-paint, hardware, Magnolia windows, Jeld-Wen doors. Now people can see things. not just try to imagine them from pages in a catalog. It's our biggest single undertaking, and it's really put bread on the table for us."

Liking the looks of those margins, Supreme then added a millwork warehouse because millwork, he explains, is delicate. "Now we've got a big loading dock so it doesn't ever touch the ground," Ryan says. "We're really growing that custom aspect. Before 1995. customers were hesitant to special order; they didn't trust a college student in an orange apron. Now we've shown them we're true to our word."

Takes a dynamite outside sales force, then? Ryan might have to agree, adding, "I'm it. I work with our biggest accounts, always on the road making sure they're happy, upselling beyond just sticks. My philosophy is, this is a small market, so there's no need for other outside people. We concentrate on our biggest accounts, and who can do that better than an owner? I meet with them, day in and day out."

Meanwhile, brother Reece, who just completed college, has come aboard to oversee operations as G.M.in-training. "That freed me up to get out more," says Ryan. "Outside sales is our biggest sales generator. We've grown from a town to a regional yard. We now serve five counties."

"The image we want to convey is professionalism, not like the redneck competition down the road," Ryan stresses. "We're located on the busiest four-lane in town-over 15,000 cars a day-so we went to work to make our building very professional-looking, too. We added professional signage. We converted our stock into a drive-through yard. (At a competitor's yard, it's all spread out, very unorganized, and they don't keep their lumber under cover.)

"My dad's a stickler for efficiency. We buy lumber by the trailer tractor and rotate the stock from back to front, so we've installed a racking system. What used to take us six hours, we now do in an hour and a half; it paid for itself immediately-plus, we can use the airspace. And it's all labeled, so it's also easy for the d-iyers when they come in."

Supreme's commercial business has taken off, too. He says, "We've done an Applebees, a Ryan's Steakhouse and a Domino's. They told me, 'You're the only one who sent me a personalized letter, so I'll give you the business."'

Ryan piggybacked on that success by posting a billboard on those prime drive-by sites touting Supreme as the source of product. "Of all the commercial business out there, we get our fair share," he states.

Ryan is convinced that print ads pull their weight with both the pro and retail market segments (and he's not one to waste his dollars). "I buy newspaper space. Full-page ads. And I cut a deal so they always appear on page 3,A,-prime location. Out at a jobsite, I saw three tearsheets with items circled. The pros were paying attention," he attests.

The makeover seems to be complete-for now. But the beat goes on-"Su-pre-e-me! Building Products!" Don't touch that dial.

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

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A- I Building Materials, Anaconda, Mt., was sold to Bruce and Rita Grabofsky, who have changed the yard's name to Anaconda Building Center; previous owners Frank and Bonnie Smith have retired ...

Valley Hardware & Building Supply, Lucerne Valley, Ca., has been sold by Bob Delperdang to the Butcher family and renamed Butcher's Block Lucerne Valley; Glenn Butcher, general mgr.

Ace Hardware, Ahwatukee, Az., will relocate from its current 10,000-sq. ft. site to a 17,500-sq. ft. building across the street

Copeland Lumber, Florence, Or., has added prepriming and prestaining services

Lanoga Corp., Redmond, Wa., has acquired the assets of Parker Lumber, a pro dealer with 13 locations in Texas, to operate as a new division ...

Maricopa Ace Hardware, Maricopa, Az., is being opened in the spring by Tom Bechtel and Frank Polimene, owners of Foothills Ace Hardware, Ahwatukee Foothills, Az.; construction of the 22,000-sq. ft. store begins this winter ...

Home Depot opened new stores Aug. 4 in Placerville, Ca. (Larry Snyder, store mgr.), and July 28 in N. Thornton, Co. ... the chain anticipates a January 2006 opening in Toole, Ut. ...

Home Depot submitted plans to build roughly 100,000-sq. ft stores with 30,000-sq. ft. garden centers in Liberty Lake, Wa.; Lake Forest, Ca., and on the site of a former Kmart in Crescent City, Ca.

Home Depot received approval to open a store this fall with an onsite day laborer center in South

San Fernando, Ca.; will break ground later this year in Palm Springs, Ca.; is evaluating sites in Indio, Ca., and decided against building at the north end of Bellevue, Id., after the city imposed a moratorium on large retail development ...

Lowe 's Cos. will open new 116,000-sq. ft. stores with 31,000sq. ft. garden centers next spring in Apache Junction, Az., and in early 2007 in Buckeye, Az., and 116,000-sq. ft. stores with 28,000sq. ft. garden centers in 3rd quarter 2006 in Riverton and Lehi, Ut.

Lowe's withdrew its application to add a second store in Roseville, Ca.; has begun construction in Keizer, Or., and will co-anchor a 310,000-sq. ft. shopping center in Martell, Ca., developed on the former site of Sierra-Pacific Industries' lumber mill

Wnorrslrrns/tlrurltrunrts

Carl Diebold Lumber Co., Troutdale. Or.. added a $5.5-million dry kiln

Collins Cos., Portland, Or., acquired Georgia-PaciJic's hardwood mill in Richwood, W.V., Aug. 19 and renamed the facility Collins Hardwood ...

Samons Components and Samons Bros. Framing Inc., Lake Havasu City, Az., lost about

$10,000 in sawing equipment and lumber in a July 30 fire at the truss plant

Swanson Group, Glendale, Ca., will shut down the Glide Lumber mill in Tumwater, Wa., for two weeks following its acquisition in mid-September from Tree source Industries (see August, p. 30), and restart the facility in early October under new management; sales will be handled from Glendale

Jeld-Wen Inc., Klamatha Falls, Or., is shuttering its Everett, Wa., doorplantby the end of next month...

Vaagen Bros., Colville, Wa., has completed installation of a complete new planer system ...

Louis iana- P ac ific's former 27acre mill site in Sandpoint, Id. * last operated and dismantled last winter by Riley Creek Lumber-is being acquired by redevelopment specialist Renova Partners LLC, Walnut Creek, Ca. ...

RGM Products, Fresno, Ca., roofing manufacturer, has been acquired by Elk Premium Building Products Inc.,Dallas, Tx., for $35 million...

Activant Solutions, Austin, Tx., agreed to acquire Prophet 2l,Inc., Yardley, Pa., a technology provider to the wholesale distribution market, for $215 million ...

Anniversaries: Collins Cos., Portland, Or., 150th Ramshaw's Ace Hardware, Mount Shasta, Ca., 60th Goodman Building Supply, Mill Valley, Ca., 50th ... Rolling Bay Timber Co., Bainbridge Island, Wa., 10th

Housing starts held even in July (latest figures) at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.04 million ... the single family sector was flat at 1.711 million. while

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