Show and Sell

If you’re reading this during business hours, there’s a high chance that there are customers currently clicking through various glass options on a screen that’s embedded in an exterior door display. Such a system is one of several interactive features at the Holmes Lumber Design Center. LBM showrooms all over the country are adopting this technology, and some are even doing away with the notion of “business hours,” offering keyed entry to enable evening appointments between builders and customers.



You wouldn’t have to look far to find rapid innovation in our industry, because it’s often happening in plain view. Showrooms and design centers are literally where customers go to see, touch and size up their options — so it’s small wonder that they’re the most visible harbingers of technological innovation.



These trends cover the wide breadth between display panels and conference centers, but many businesses are also striking out on their own in small ways. HBSDealer took a closer look at three of them.

Holmes Lumber

Millersburg, Ohio



Holmes Lumber kicked off its relationship with the Ohio builders market in 1952, but the advent of the Design Center (which launched at its Millersburg headquarters in 2006) was a more recent addition.



Today, 5-out-of-12 Holmes Lumber locations have Design Centers, and that’s largely a response to explicit demand from its large pro builder customer base.



“Many of them (especially the custom home builders) expressed a need for a Design Center that they can bring or send homeowners to see different options and make selections,” said VP Steve Miller. “By us providing this and keeping it updated with the newest trends and options, it allows our builders to utilize it without having to build/maintain such a facility themselves.”



Given the constancy with which trends evolve, the Design Center may be one of the least static divisions in the company. Visitors can, at a glance, see the latest in millwork, fireplaces, stairways, windows, doors, siding, flooring and more.



“There are dozens of selection decisions in a custom home, and showing many of these options in one place streamlines the process,” Miller said.

Chic Lumber Co.

St. Peters/O’Fallon, Mo.



This full-service lumber and building materials yard was comprehensive at the get-go, encompassing a main store, retail center and manufacturing facility, and staffing two millwork and window specialists, four kitchen designers and six LBM pros.



To continue that streak, Chic Lumber opened a 7,000-sq.-ft. advanced design and conference center in November, echoing a larger trend in LBM showrooms to provide meeting spaces for pros and their customers. Much more than just a meeting room, the facility houses workstations that feature such design programs as 20/20 and CAD, which makes it easy for everyone involved to contribute ideas on the spot, and at any hour of the day (24-hour keycard access ensures this). The 30-person conference center, which sometimes hosts non-industry-related community events, is also equipped with a Bluetooth Epson smartboard that allows visitors to run PowerPoint presentations using their cellphones.



“We were in the process of opening a new division where we were trying to grow our remodeling business, and we knew that we needed a better design center or showroom to help remodelers and their clients make selections,” said president Adam Hendrix. “In this market, remodelers (and just because of ease) will often send their pro customer to big-box stores to make selections.”



The displays themselves are hands-on, and five 50-in. monitors provide 20/20 workstations or slideshows of finished projects for inspiration.



“I think it’s the future of design,” Hendrix said. “I think most LBM dealers are going to have design centers instead of traditional old showrooms going forward.”

Spahn & Rose Lumber Co.

Dubuque, Iowa



In its more than 100 years of being in business, Spahn & Rose saw a good chunk of its evolution happen in the past year: namely when its flagship location in Dubuque got a much-need update in the form of a new showroom.



The 28,000-plus-sq.-ft. facility is more than three times the size of the old showroom, which has paved the way for more than 2,300 new SKUs and a few entirely new product categories. Within those categories, there are also options — four different types of entry doors, 15 roofing products, 20 types of windows, nine decking options and eight variations of railing, to give a few examples. Did we mention it houses an entire Model Home as well? The fully constructed, 1,000-sq.-ft. house is built with products that are available in-store or by special order.



That still leaves room for four conference rooms, where contractors and builders can meet with clients to plan and weigh their options, as well as an Internet-equipped customer idea center. In the latter space, a display monitor connected to the solar panels on the building’s roof tells visitors how much energy is being saved — in real time.