E & B Lumber moves to new location

Better customer service  and greater efficiency pushed brothers Dave and Rod Kalyn to build their new E & B Lumber location.

The company, which operated out of the old building since 1982, moved out of their old facility and into a brand new one in early January.

“Our volumes have been increasing over the last 30 years and as you get progressively larger with more staff, more people, you eventually outgrow your infrastructure,” said Dave.

The new store located on an eight acre lot at 511 Service Road East features more than 20,000 square feet of indoor storage and retail space.

The new shop makes a successful business more efficient as all of their product is now located at one site. After out growing their previous facility years ago, the company had to get creative with their storage solutions. Roof trusses were often stored on a lot at the corner of Main Street and 7th Avenue while windows were stored in semi trailers on a lot on Railway Avenue. If the trailers filled up, it wasn’t unusual for the brothers to fill their garages with whatever needed storing.

Their previous location was roughly 4,200 square feet in the main building while they rented an adjacent 4,000 square foot storage building.

With the move, the days of Dave and Rod sharing an office that doubled as a lunch room are over. The new location contains roughly 5,000 square feet of office and retail space including a board room and lunch room.

The new location also includes the offices of R & D Tax Service.

The Kalyn family’s involvement in the business began in 1976 when their father Mike purchased E & B Lumber in Prince Albert. A satellite store was opened in Shellbrook in 1980 under the management of their mother Elsie Kalyn.

This  eventually became the company’s flagship when the Prince Albert store was sold in 1986 to M & M Building Supplies. At that time, Dave and Rod moved out to Shellbrook and took over operation of the business.

“Right from the start, this community has been great to us,” said Dave.

Both brothers have lived and worked in the community ever since.

Dave and Rod acquired their dad’s shares in the business when Mike passed away in 1988.

With the additional space, the company can now take better advantage of limited time offers and stock up while the prices are good.

They also become less dependent upon trucks coming from their suppliers to provide products for their customers.

This is bolstered through their use of the Winnipeg based Sexton buying group. E & B uses Sexton’s buying power to level the playing field with larger lumber and hardware retailers like Rona and Home Depot.

“We are not just a small company in Shellbrook fending for ourselves, we’ve got some people working for us,” said Dave.

The Sexton Group represents more than 1,000 retail locations combining $2.2 billion of purchases creating the largest concentration of materials purchasing power in the industry.

While many of the product lines will remain the same for the new store  there have been a few new additions but the major difference will be that most of it will be in stock at all times.

“We are just going to do what we did before only better,” said Dave.

They have also brought in an upgraded paint mixer which can handle four gallons at a time and they now have a computerized paint matching system that can identify the colour of any sample and match it within the General Paint  product line.

The company has also expanded their reverse osmosis water system, incorporating a quick fill spout for higher volume customers while maintaining a self fill unit for smaller customers.

The large new storefront will help give customers a better idea of what they can purchase with a multitude of displays and products.

“We didn’t have displays or inventory to support any of our indoor sales,” said Dave.

With the added room, inside and out, the company will be able to reduce waste as many of the materials will be kept indoors and products will all have a home so they won’t have to be moved from place to place.

Though the company has served the community of Shellbrook for the past 32 years, most of their products are sold well beyond the town limits.

“Most of our business is cabin country. We do some residential in Shellbrook and we do lots of stuff in La Ronge,” said Dave.

During their busiest times in the summer they are sending two trucks a day to the Big River area while three trucks a week are headed to La Ronge.

The company gained its inroads to cottage country through forming good relationships with contractors building in these areas.

Free delivery and their willingness to work with contractors has created some lifelong customers.

The company focuses on customer service while trying to provide the best lumber they can for their customers and Dave believes that that goes a long way.

Including Dave and Rod, the business staffs nine people and the summer will determine whether or not they have to increase their staffing levels.

As for the old building, Dave said that they’ve been so wrapped up in getting the new site up and running they haven’t thought much about the old one.

“We’ll take our time and deal with it properly,” said Dave.