LMC explores new frontiers
HOUSTON, Texas — Given this city’s history, Cowboys, Astronauts, and exploring the future is the theme of the 2024 LMC Annual held here this week at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
And LMC explored reaching new frontiers throughout the Annual.
“The Next Frontier” featured presentations on LMC’s technology updates, women advancing in the industry, artificial intelligence and how AI can be used in kitchen and bath design, and dealers embracing components in residential construction and garnering greater sales.
The event’s key image featured a cowboy on his horse gazing at a cosmic skyline and, perhaps, a glimpse of tomorrow.
At this morning’s update breakfast and keynote address, LMC President and CEO Paul Ryan provided the latest information on how the building materials buying group continues to grow and reach new frontiers.
According to Ryan, LMC has grown to about 415 members with over 1,800 locations. Combined, LMC dealer members hit sales of $25 billion in 2023.
“It’s an amazing collection of members that we have at LMC,” Ryan told a packed ballroom of dealers, vendors, and attendees at the Hilton Americas Houston hotel.
The CEO also noted that sales number was reached despite economic headwinds, including lumber and commodity deflation, sagging home sales, and high mortgage rates.
Since the last LMC Annual held in Charlotte, N.C. last March, the cooperative has added 20 new members bringing in an additional $1.5 billion in annual sales. LMC has already added 12 new members in 2024 along with 45 dealers in the past decade, Ryan noted.
“Our dealers are leaders in their markets,” Ryan said. He added that members purchased about $6.2 billion in products from LMC in 2023. “Our dealers last year too market share in their local markets and purchased more from LMC than they ever have.”
“We look at volume,” Ryan explained. “That shows us and how we measure how well we are doing and our members are doing.”
Looking ahead, LMC is looking to help dealers make strides in multifamily construction and component sales. This includes LMC members who produce components selling and moving their products to fell LMC dealers.
“It’s a win-win situation,” Ryan said. “Our goal is to have a win-win outcome every time we can.”
Enhancing communication is another aspect that LMC looks to build on through peer-to-peer networking opportunities and platforms. The discussions range from CEO groups to kitchen and bath design talks.
LMC also records a forest products trader discussion every Friday morning. Called “Trader Talk,” the conversations are recorded and then shared with the co-op’s dealer network.
Regarding technology, LMC continues to work on e-commerce solutions and an electronic catalog, among other new features. Ryan said LMC’s tech progression is “on time and on budget.”
LMC Vice President of Technology Jack Phipps provided and LMC tech update on March 5.
“This an opportunity to take the combined scale of all the LMC dealers and try to reduce their costs in adopting technology,” the CEO said. “We are really pushing hard – it’s a big focus of ours.”
Astronaut Advice
Connecting to the show's theme and Houston setting, former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino delivered the keynote address at the 2024 LMC Annual.
While the Long Island, New York native provided a comical journey while discussing his career as an astronaut, Massimino's talk focused on high-stakes, dangerous space missions.
Currently a professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia University, Massimino let the audience know that his applications to NASA were rejected several times before he was finally selected for the astronaut program in May 1996. Following two years of training, he was qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist.
Massimino performed two spacewalks totaling 14 hours and 46 minutes. He noted that while working in space and performing repairs on the Hubble Telescope, he orbited the Earth every 90 minutes. That translates into working 45 minutes while illuminated by the Sun and 45 minutes in operating in complete darkness other than lighting provided by his equipment and the Space Shuttle Columbia.
When it came to the topic of success and failure, Massimino said he has a "30 seconds" rule.
"If something breaks, if something goes wrong, give yourself just 30 seconds of regret before moving on," Massimino said.
The space explorer gave examples of when he was performing repair missions in space, the job didn't always go as planned.
"No matter how bad things can be, remember that you can make it worse," he said. "Handle one problem at a time."
