LMC provides updates on Guy C. Lee's multifamily venture
This year marks a milestone year for Guy C. Lee Building Materials, the prodealer, serving North and South Carolina.
Guy C. Lee is a member of LMC, the Wayne, Pennsylvania forest products, lumber and building materials buying group. Earlier this year, LMC revealed a roster of its dealer-members who have reached 100 or more years in business.
According to LMC, not only is Guy C. Lee celebrating 100 years in business this year, but they have officially launched their new multifamily division.
Here’s what LMC had to share about Guy C. Lee’s new business venture:
Getting started in multi-family is a significant change for their business. LMC sat down with Cory Jameson, the CEO who has a history of 25 years at the company.
Once multifamily became a point of focus for Guy C. Lee, the leadership team then spent over six months fleshing out the idea internally and leaned heavily on the LMC dealer network to learn as much as they could about the trials and tribulations dealers have had in multifamily.
The network Jameson established by connecting with fellow LMC dealers is a significant factor in their confidence to expand their business in this new direction.
“Within the LMC network, people are extremely helpful. They want to help you,” Jameson explains. “There are some extremely successful people who do what we do at any given time within the LMC family. You can always pick up the phone and shoot an email to one of your buddies that you’ve met through LMC, and they’re always glad to give you some time.”
Finding friends in business through LMC, Guy C. Lee became an LMC member in 2015. The decision was one of Cory’s first priorities when he became CEO.
“When I took over the company, I knew that the crème de la crème of the LBM industry were members of LMC. I knew there was a reason for it, and I wanted to figure out why,” Jameson explains."
Since then, the CEO and his teams have fully embraced the value of their expanded national network, and he credits the ability to pick up the phone and call some of the most successful independent dealers in the country with the launch of Guy C. Lee’s new division.
“Someone is always already doing what it is you want to try,” Jameson says. “It’s a new idea to you because you only know what you know. I’ve learned through the LMC experience that you can probably put a lot of heartache to the side if you have a network of people who you can pick up the phone and call with no distress and no threat and talk to them about your idea.”
So, when Guy C. Lee went on a fact-finding mission to learn about the multifamily sector, the first place they looked for information was from other LMC dealers who’ve already seen success.
“As with anything in life, if you’re trying to get better at something, you want to surround yourself with people who are much smarter than you,” Jameson notes. And that’s one thing LMC is very helpful with. I can call up somebody in Virginia and do it comfortably. Nine times of out ten, they say ‘Hey, come on up’.”
During 2023, Jameson and the team met five LMC member dealers in the Northeast who have had great success over the years in multi-family. The multiple perspectives from the people they met deeply informed how Cory and Guy C. Lee would navigate the launch of their new division.
“At the end of the day, there aren’t a lot of secrets in the LBM industry. It’s more about execution and how the most successful companies get stuff done. Being able to talk to folks who aren’t competitors -- who are two states over -- helps prevent avoidable mistakes,” Jameson says. “We might not have even launched multi-family if we hadn’t been able to have the conversations with the other LMC members who were doing it. We’d have two-hour Zoom calls where no questions were off the table, which was cool.”
Not only is knowledge-sharing and networking valuable for gathering facts, but it also extends to building meaningful relationships. Beyond connecting with fellow Northeast dealers, Jameson has been an active member of the LMC Building Materials Committee.
“The committee sitting piece really creates lifelong bonds with other members. I still get the occasional phone call or text from someone just checking in because we haven’t caught up in a while,” he says. “Just always knowing that there’s someone within LMC who will help you -- even if you’re in the same business, same industry -- there’s always someone who will actually give you time and talk about how you do something. It’s so cool to be able to comfortably surround yourself with people who are smarter than you are and then just learn from them.”i
In 1924, Guy C. Lee started a small millwork and manufacturing company in the heart of downtown Smithfield, North Caroilna. Over the next few decades, Guy C. Lee Manufacturing expanded to include a retail building supply store and a sawmill.
Guy Lee recognized that a successful business must be able to change strategies to meet the needs of its customers and the demands of the market, LMC said. The company has survived lean times and thrived during economic booms.
In 1959, Ross Lampe, Guy Lee’s son-in-law, bought the company. Under his direction, the company continued to expand and evolve. Today, Guy C. Lee operates 8 locations in the Carolinas.
LMC serves over 1,800 dealer locations in the United States.
