This month's report on openings, closures, and acquisitions requires an awfully big asterisk. The map here shows the 193 locations that have seen a change through Sept. 15; deals are marked by blue pins, greenfield openings by green pins, and closures by red. That’s a lot of action, though it’s still 33% less than what we saw over the same period last year.
But this map excludes the impact of the late August announcement that Builders FirstSource (BFS) will merge with BMC Stock Holdings. Once it closes late this year or early in 2021, that deal will take approximately 160 BMC branches (blue pins on the lower map) and give them BFS names.
How long some of those branches will last after the deal closes is up for debate. Executives from both companies have said they expect some branches from both sides to be shuttered, mainly in markets where there are both BFS and BMC locations. Area dealers and outside investors are expected to watch those actions closely in hopes of acquiring a ready-built lumberyard that the new BFS no longer needs.
So far this year, there have been 132 LBM locations involved in deals, 39 greenfield openings and 22 closures. As often is the case, SRS Distribution led the way in August. Its Heritage Landscape Supply Group kept growing, this time buying Silver Creek Supply, a landscaping/irrigation firm with seven branches in Idaho and one in Wyoming. Heritage also opened another of its retail-oriented outlets, HLS Outdoor, in Eagan, MN.
Kodiak Building Partners virtually doubled its employee count in one deal by acquiring Carpenter Contractors of America (CCA), a truss/components specialist. CCA has 2,000 workers at factories in Pompano Beach, Fort Myers, Winter Haven, and Tampa, FL; Belvidere, IL; and Fayetteville, NC.
In addition, two units of Kodiak opened greenfield operations. Freedom Materials launched a new operation called Freedom Acoustics. It’s in Newark, DE. Meanwhile, Kodiak joined with its Jenkins Lumber and Hardware to create Jenkins Drywall and Insulation in Etna, WY.
In Hawaii, HPM Building Supply bought Miyake Concrete, a four-unit operation on the island of Maui. The stores will be renamed Miyake-HPM Building Supply. It’s the first major deal in the Aloha State since a Canadian company bought Honsador Group in 2017.
US LBM was triply busy. First, it purchased Maner Builders Supply, with operations in North Charleston and Aiken, SC, and Augusta, GA. Later in the month, its Universal Supply unit opened a branch in Newark, NJ. And then Hines Supply opened a new branch in West Chicago
Elsewhere …
L&W Supply, the drywall division of ABC Supply, bought Drywall Supply Inc., a three-unit operation based in Colorado.
Foundation Building Materials acquired Marriott Drywall of Waukesha, WI.
84 Lumber officially opened a truss plant in Mansfield, OH.
Porters Building Centers in Smithville, MO, closed.
Burke (SD) Building Center reopened in a new location after its previous location was destroyed in 2019 by a tornado.
