Williamstown Lumber Yard Growing to Meet Demand
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Growing customer need means more buildings and more workers at R.K. Miles Inc.
The building materials supplier at the corner of Cole Avenue and North Hoosac Road has added five new buildings to its complex and more than doubled the number of employees.
Glenn Hebert, general manager of the Williamstown branch of the Manchester, Vt., based company, said when he first came on board, there were seven employees. This has now grown to 18 and the lumber yard has "outgrown" its facility.
"We have outgrown the area that we are in ... it became too small for us with the number of SKUs (items) that we carry, the number of vehicles and employees that we have," Hebert said. "We have become much larger and we encompass a larger territory and the facility limited what we could do."
With the closure of longtime businesses such as Greenberg's, Agway and Leonard's True Value, Miles has had to fill in the gaps.
"We are trying to be there to service everybody and now we serve people from all over the place," he said. "We want to take care of everybody's needs and listen to our customers and with the loss of some key competition we had to expand."
Greenberg & Son Inc. lumber yard closed in North Adams in 2013 and the main store in Bennington, Vt., a year later. Agway on Main Street shuttered in 2009 and the True Value in Pownal, Vt., in 2011.
R.K. Miles purchased the Taconic Lumber Co. location in Williamstown about a decade ago. It also has locations in West Hatfield and in Middlebury, Vt.
Hebert said the expansion project has been constructed in phases starting with a complete overhaul of the lumber yard, which now has five brand-new buildings. The new warehouse will have a rack system and operate as a drive-through.
Part of an older building on the site was knocked down for the addition that will hold paint and sundries and will allow room for a showroom and an improved administration office area.
"Basically all of the departments that we have are going to increase. We always had a nice level but we don't have the magnitude of inventory that our other locations have," Hebert said. "We are going to expand paint, hand tools, power tools, lawn and garden and we never really had a true showroom but now we will."
He said the store should be complete by November and the entire project should be wrapped up by the end of the year.
Tags: building supplies, business development, expansion,
