“From Engineered Wood Products, we went on to turnkey framing,” Pina added. “We do multi-family and larger home projects turn-key—we guarantee a price to supply material and erect it.” Kaitz states that Pina’s leadership made National Lumber the first lumberyard to introduce the concept to New England, and has grown that division since the late 1980s to a force covering a territory from New Hampshire to Georgia and as far west as the Mississippi River.
As the successes mounted for National Lumber, Pina led the company through more areas of growth, expanding their kitchen and millwork departments along with adding new companies which specialized in drywall, custom millwork, and insulation installation. “We started acquiring companies over the years, looking for strengths that would augment our business. We went out and looked for things other yards weren’t doing. It’s no longer the lumber business, it’s the construction business,” Pina said. “The more you offer in the building-critical path, the easier it is for the customer. With all the services we provide, our well-seasoned sales staff, led by driven sales managers, maintain steady growth.”
National Lumber Company started out in 1934 with a single location in the Roxbury neighborhood in Boston, founded by Morris Kaitz, the grandfather of current co-CEOs Steven Kaitz and Margie Kaitz Seligman. In 1953, Morris Kaitz, along with his four sons—Harold, Sam, Lou and John—opened a second location in Salem, Mass. A few years later, the headquarters moved to Newton, Mass., following the building growth of both businesses and homes, to better serve customers from this strategically chosen location.
With a fresh start in Newton, the business thrived with its two locations until 1990. At that point they opened up a new headquarters in Mansfield, Mass., again strategically located, near the two main highways in Massachusetts in order to speed up deliveries. The 12-acre site has allowed for convenient rail access and is used as a distribution yard for National’s other locations.
