LBM Journal January 2010 : Page 27
convenient to wherever they’re building.” R.P. Lumber has plowed profits back into the business, opening new stores as they become available. And there have been profits, even in downturns. With sales of about $164 million, R.P. Lumber expects total sales for 2009 to beat 2008’s sales, which were off only about 2% from the previous year, he says. That drop was due primarily to the low prices on lumber, which hurt total sales revenues. The company’s size was achieved through the 1980s and 1990s, after Plum- mer opened the first store in January 1977. A high-school teacher and coach, he grew up around a lumberyard in Litchfield, Ill., and had sawdust in his veins. “Home was next door to the yard, and there was always something for me to do when I was a kid, even if it was to just pick up trash or stock 2x4s.” When he was 25, he purchased an abandoned yard with no running water or heat and little electrical service. “When you’re young and have a lot of energy, nothing looks too hard.” His first expansion in 1981 nearly de- railed his plans, as he committed to a sec- ond yard in Carlinville. He also was offered an abandoned property in Greenville, Ill., by the bank holding the mortgage. Then the prime rate rose to 20%. “It was prob- ably the worst possible time to do it,” he notes. “We worked very, very hard to make those yards work.” More sites were added into the 1990s as opportunities arose. Then in 2002, he purchased six Carter Lumber yards, sell- ing off one that was too far north for the company’s market area. Two years later, he bought 10 more Carter yards. “We added 16 yards in a very short time.” Today, there are more than 500 employ- ees working for the company. “We would be nothing, and would not have been able to grow, without great employees, great suppliers and great bankers.” ➤ 2010 ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR R.P. Lumber, Edwardsville, Illinois CATEGORY: Sales of more than $50 million As with new locations Bob Plummer, president and CEO, is regularly adding to his next generation of new staff. He’s now training his first grandson, Hunter Lading, who is 21 months old. Chase Lading arrived in September, and a third grandchild arrived in December.
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