84 Lumber revealed March 24 that it will close nine more stores and a truss plant in what the company is calling a consolidation move prompted by the declining housing market. In Santa Rosa, Calif., the pro dealer will close its store and exit the market altogether. Elsewhere, 84 will shutter stores, sell the properties and serve the market from a larger, centralized store.
The move, revealed to employees today in an internal memo, follows last week's 28 job cuts at the dealer's headquarters in Eighty Four, Pa. An additional 20 employees were offered jobs in other positions in the company, according to Jeff Nobers, 84 Lumber vice president of marketing and communications. Altogether, about 80 positions have been eliminated at 84 headquarters within the last year, Nobers told ProSales. As of today, the company has 600 total employees at its headquarters.
Stores impacted by the consolidation move include Loveland and Colorado Springs, Colo.; Covington, Ga.; Tampa and Sarasota, Fla.; Frederick and Seabrook, Md.; and Omaha, Neb. A closing in Sacramento, Calif., also involves the shuttering of a truss plant.
The Frederick operation will be consolidated with one in Mount Airy, Md., which also has an engineered wood center, installed insulation and framing and access to an 84 Components plant. Similarly, Covington is being folded into 84 Lumber's McDonough store, which has access to what the company is calling its new Atlanta Construction Service Hub in Cartersville, Ga., featuring a door shop, engineered wood center; installed insulation; and whole-house installed sales program.
"For the most part, we have multiples stores in markets," Nobers told ProSales. "Four or five years ago when the market was white hot, that was fine. You keep opening stores because the markets are growing. Now that's no longer the case."
ProSales has also learned that executive vice president Mark Garboski has left the company and joined ProBuild, the Denver-based company that is the nation's largest pro dealer. Last year, COO Bill Myrick also left for ProBuild after a 25-year career at 84 Lumber.
As of March 24, 84 Lumber is operating 393 stores and 13 component plants. Two months ago the company closed weight stores and "mothballed" four others and last December, four stores were relocated while five others were consolidated in major metro markets.
