A New Store For a New Kind of Customer – Iowa-based Spahn & Rose Lumber Co. more than tripled the size of its flagship store, and the investment is paying solid dividends.
There are a couple of schools of thought on the best way for LBM dealers to compete with big box stores. For one, you can try to differentiate your yard by focusing on just the core lumber and building products you know that your faithful contractor customers are buying. Secondly, you can expand upon your tried and true product selection and beat the big boxes at their own game.
That second option is what Spahn & Rose Lumber Co. has done with its Dubuque, Iowa store. President and CEO John Hannan will tell you it’s one of the best decisions his leadership group has made.
This spring, as member-owners of Do it Best Corp., Spahn & Rose added 2,200 new SKUS to its product mix as it moved from a 9,000-square-foot store to a 28,000-square-foot retail space that now anchors its chain of 25 locations, including 20 in Iowa, four in Illinois and one in Wisconsin. The new location features an expanded showroom space to show windows, doors, cabinets and more, and includes a 1,100-squarefoot display home to allow customers to see a variety of colors, styles and brands of siding, windows, shingles, decking patio/entry doors and soffit options.