Robert E. Mellor, forrmerly chairman and CEO of Building Materials Holding Corp. (BMHC), has joined the board of directors at Stock Building Supply, Stock announced today. The addition will help Stock as it engages in "aggressive expansion," the company said.
"We are very excited about the potential to grow Stock and have been seeing a lot of growth and acquisition opportunities in the marketplace," said Tim Meyer, chairman of Stock's board and a managing director of the Gores Group, which owns 51% of Stock. "Adding Rob Mellor to our board of directors will help us capitalize on some of those opportunities. ... The addition of Rob Mellor greatly enhances our prospects for future growth and expansion."
Notably, Mellor also serves on the board of directors of The Ryland Group Inc., one of America's biggest homebuilders. While Stock president and CEO Joe Appelmann has said the company's focus is on firms building up to 50 homes a year, Stock has pursued national accounts in Ryland's league.
Stock, America's second-biggest LBM operation according to last year's ProSales 100, reorganized last year while under Chapter 11 bankruptcy-law protection from creditors. It emerged last July as a $1 billion operation (about one-third its previous revenue size) with a focus on 19 markets nationwide.
Going forward, "Stock has identified 2010 as a year of aggressive expansion," the company said in a statement. It quoted Appelmann as saying: "Our focus this year is to strengthen and extend our market footprint."
Indeed, just last week, Stock announced it will seek to acquire National Home Centers of Arkansas, No. 26 on the ProSales 100, which went into Chapter 11 late last year.
BMHC is America's sixth-biggest operation, with $1.3 billion in revenue in 2008. It filed for Chapter 11 last summer and emerged at year-end reorganized, with a new name--BMC Select--and without Mellor.
Mellor joined BMHC in 1997 and served as its chief executive officer through the Chapter 11 period. He was also president of BMHC from 1997 to 2008.
