Carter Lumber expands in the East

Carter Lumber has acquired and reopened yards and a truss plant formerly operated by New Jersey pro dealer DuBell Lumber.

DuBell ceased operations this past February, but Carter Lumber was quick to acquire the locations within weeks of the DuBell exit, according to Mark Ely, director of marketing at Carter Lumber.

“We worked with their creditors to purchase the physical locations. We have done everything we possibly could to get them up and running quickly,” Ely told HBSDealer.

Carter’s acquisition includes locations in Cherry Hill, Pleasantville, Winslow and Medford; the latter being the former headquarters of DuBell.

All four yards are up and running with grand opening ceremonies recently held at the Cherry Hill and Medford locations. Terms of the the acquisition were not disclosed.

“These are some of the fastest locations we have ever opened. It took a lot of teamwork. We had people coming from our corporate office and stores all across our footprint to help out,” Ely says.

The yards provide Carter with access to the metro-Philadelphia market, in addition to southern New Jersey. Prior to the acquisitions, Lancaster, Pa. had been Carter’s closest location to the market.

Also included in the acquisition is a truss plant in Millville and a kitchen warehouse location in Vineland, N.J.

Carter Lumber is in the process of upgrading the Millville truss plant with state-of-the-art equipment. The Millville facility produced its first truss last week and is now accepting truss orders from across the market.

At the Vineland kitchen warehouse, Carter is in the process of clearing out the building and plans have it up and running soon for their kitchen program. “Even prior to opening, as we were renovating these facilities, customers were stopping in to inquire about kitchen cabinets. There is obviously a big demand and we’ve hired kitchen sales representatives for both Medford and Cherry Hill to assist those customers,” Ely said.

All of the New Jersey locations will operate under the Carter Lumber banner.

Based in Kent, Ohio, Carter Lumber operates 163 locations, including 12 truss manufacturing facilities and 9 prehung door manufacturing locations.