ProBuild Holdings announced Tuesday, July 1, the purchase of Racine, Wis.-based Big Buck Building Centers Inc. The purchase brings ProBuild a combined lumberyard, truss plant and millwork facility that can serve residential and commercial contractors in Chicago and Milwaukee. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
"Chicago and Milwaukee together comprise one of the top five markets in the United States and are key to ProBuild's strategy," ProBuild's north region president, Dale Kukowski, said in a statement. "Big Buck is a well-run operation that strengthens our access to key markets and allows us to better meet the needs of our growing customer base. We look forward to welcoming the employees of Big Buck to ProBuild."
"ProBuild will provide Big Buck with significant long-term growth opportunities," said Valerie Hansen, Big Buck's CEO and the third generation of her family to run the lumberyard.
Founded in 1929, Big Buck operates a building materials distribution center in Racine, Wis. ProBuild said the company "specializes in framing systems (steel and wood trusses, engineered wood products, dimensional lumber); and millwork/trim packages (including eco-friendly water-based prefinishing)."
ProBuild is the biggest LBM operation in the United States, with more than 550 locations in 41 states and 2007 sales of $5 billion, 90% of which went to pros.
