Deals by Hammond Lumber, Decks & Docks Highlight Summer's LBM M&A Action

LBM facilities acquired (blue pins), newly opened (green) or closed (red) YTD 2025. Source: Webb Analytics

Ware-Butler Building Supply used to regard itself as one of Hammond Lumber's biggest competitors. Now they're on the same team.

On July 22, Hammond announced it had acquired Ware-Butler from its parent, Pleasant River Lumber. The purchase adds 15 new locations in Maine and New Hampshire to the Hammond network. Three of those locations will be merged with existing Hammond stores, bringing Hammond's total count to 34 locations and more than 1,200 employees. It's Hammond's biggest single acquisition since 2018, when it purchased the 10-location EBS Building Supplies. By the end of 2024, Hammond had grown to $435 million in revenue, good for 36th place on Webb Analytics' Construction Supply 150. It's the second-biggest private employer in Maine.

Hammond's purchase also is the biggest lumberyard deal that Webb Analytics has tracked so far this year. All told, there have been 902 LBM facilities acquired year to date, but only 52 lumber-focused locations have changed hands. In contrast, 659 locations of roofing speciality stores have been bought, mainly through QXO's purchase of Beacon.

The 902 count excludes roughly 435 Gypsum Management & Supply locations that The Home Depot is in the process of buying. GMS is a drywall specialist. Once that deal enters the books, 2025 will go down as the most acquisitive that LBM has seen in a decade. The year-to-date openings count, at 138, is pretty much on pace with 2022 through 2024's numbers.

This summer also has seen one of the only other significant lumber-related deals. In a late June transaction, Decks & Docks expanded into the Midwest by purchasing The Deck Supply, which has six locations in Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa. Until that purchase, Decks & Docks was found exclusively on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

In other recent action:

• Mill Creek Lumber & Supply bought Scissortail Building Supply of Jenks, OK.

• Fast-growing Forge & Build purchased Arab (AL) Lumber.

• SiteOne Landscape Supply acquired Grove Nursery in Corcoran, MN, and Nashville (TN) Nursery & Landscape Center.

• QXO opened new stores in Winston-Salem, NC; Stuart, FL; Caddo Mills, TX; and Solon, OH.

• Short & Paulk moved into a new facility in Tifton, GA.

• Hatchet Hardware grew to nine stores with the purchase of Nassau (NY) Country Value.

• Aubuchon Ace Hardware kept growing, this time taking over Wyoming (RI) Ace Hardware.

• H&L Lumber closed in Mariposa, CA.

• Over the past few months, E.C. Barton has opened Home Outlet stores in Newnan, GA; Myrtle Beach, SC; Athens, GA; Mooresville, NC; and Clarksville and Murfreesboro, TN.