Lummus Supply continues to thrive as a fifth-generation family business

For Lummus Supply CEO Will Lummus to say the construction business is in his blood is an understatement.

Ninety-nine years ago, his great-grandfather, Robert H. Lummus, Sr. began selling sand to supply the burgeoning city of Atlanta. Even back then, the city was growing quickly, tripling in population from the late 1800s until 1925 when Lummus Supply was born.

Since then, five generations of the Lummus family have worked to build Lummus Supply into one of the preeminent lumber suppliers of the Southeast, serving custom homebuilders through five locations stretching northeast from Atlanta to Oakwood, Georgia.

“We started in sand, then added coal, but then my grandfather came home from World War II, he saw the boom in housing demand and decided to switch to lumber,” Lummus explains with a smile. “I’m glad we switched to lumber. Good call granddaddy.”

Keeping the Family in “Family Business”

No company lasts five generations by accident. It takes dedication, hard work, and perseverance. But more than that, it takes a relentless focus on doing the right thing.

“We run our business off family values,” Lummus says. “That’s not only how we treat our employees, it’s how we treat our customers. You do what’s right and they’ll keep coming back to you.”

Though today he holds the title of CEO, it wasn’t always that way. Lummus started his career in the family business early. First, sweeping warehouse floors, then working his way up — pulling orders, sales, buying, and even human resources.

“Ever since I was a kid, my dad would bring me into the office,” he says. “I’m able to relate to all my department heads because I’ve dabbled in every part of it.”

His background gives Lummus a deep understanding of the business on a visceral level. “I don’t ask any employee to do something I haven’t done myself,” he beams. “I know what it takes. I know what they’re doing and what they’re going through. I honestly think that starting off at ground zero is what developed me the most.”

Though these days Lummus works primarily in the office, his appreciation for the hard work and manual labor that has gone into building his family legacy still drives him.

“As we know, typically a family business doesn’t last past three generations,” Lummus notes. “Seeing how passionate my dad was and listening to my grandfather talk about the business inspired me to continue the legacy. Once they handed off the baton to me, I wanted to see how far I could take it.”

The family tradition continues today with Lummus’ kids. Both of his kids are currently working full-time in the business.

“My goal is to hand them the business when I retire, hopefully even in better shape than it is today.”

Like him, both of his grown children engaged in multiple roles in the company when they were younger. Today, his daughter works in human resources and accounts receivable, while his son currently focuses on safety and quality control.

Early on, Lummus was clear with both kids that joining the company wasn’t an obligation, and that they should only pursue it if they knew they could be happy working in the family business.“

I told my kids if you’re not 110% passionate about Lummus Supply and this industry, we don’t need you. You’re not going to do us any good and you’re not going to do yourself any good,” he says. “Luckily, they’re both very, very passionate about it and they’re looking forward to growing within the company.”

The Company You Keep

High standards are a big part of what makes Lummus Supply tick. The company focuses on hiring and training high quality people, carrying only high quality materials, and providing high quality customer service to customers who build — you guessed it — high quality homes.

“Our core customers are custom home builders,” Lummus says. “It’s very common for the homes we do to be anywhere between 5,000 to 10,000 square foot homes.”

That’s why, he explains, Lummus does business with Boise Cascade Engineered Wood Products.

“When you’re building a home like that you want to trust the name and somebody who’s going to stand behind its reputation. We know we could buy a lesser joist or a lesser LVL, but that’s not what we want behind the Lummus Supply name. When your last name is on the building you want to be represented with the highest standards.”

Choosing the right partners has paid off for Lummus Supply when they needed it most.

Just last year a fire broke out in their main lumber production facility, destroying the Hundegger saw they had used for years. Miraculously, the building that housed the saw was spared. (The cause of the fire was never determined, though there was a lightning strike near the facility that night.)

For a lumber yard, any saw downtime can mean a blow to customer confidence, workflow, and the bottom line. The Lummus team went to work immediately to reduce any disruption to customers.

“Our first call was to Boise Cascade®, and they jumped into action,” Lummus recalls. The lead time for a new version of Boise Cascade’s SawTek® automated saw system wasn’t going to meet Lummus’s immediate need for a solution. Instead, the team located parts from one of their SawTek saws sitting idle at a customer location, matched it up with material handling equipment they acquired from another site, and completed the system with brand new components from their spare part inventory. Within a matter of weeks, the Boise Cascade team had everything in place to get an automated saw system to Lummus.

The company was able to mitigate some of the downtime issues by shifting some of their production to the Boise Cascade Building Materials Distribution production facility in Auburn, Georgia and relying on their manual backup saw for the rest. Though this approach kept the product moving, getting the new-to-them automated SawTek equipment up and running in a few weeks was very valuable.

“Obviously, my team didn’t want to keep using the manual saw,” Lummus says with a soft chuckle. “Getting back up and having an automated saw was huge for us.”

Even though it’s still early in their use of the SawTek system, Lummus believes the saw will help them process more without sacrificing quality.

“We’re looking forward to growing with the SawTek system. It’s going to help us cut more lineal footage throughout the day, and I think the hole cutting that the SawTek system is capable of is going to help us put better holes in the joists.”

Creating Value Through Shared Values

While nobody wishes for a disruption such as the fire that destroyed Lummus’s saw, in the building supply business, dealing with the outcomes of the unexpected is definitely part of the job.

And when the unexpected occurs, it’s important to know the partners who have your — and your customer’s — back. In the case of Boise Cascade and Lummus Supply, one sign it’s a good fit is their shared values.

“Integrity,” that uncompromising conviction to doing the right thing, is a core value for both companies. “Lummus Supply and Boise Cascade’s values go hand in hand,” Lummus says.

In this business, with all its ups and downs, those shared values have the pragmatic effect of reducing risk and increasing opportunities over the long term.

“I’ve always taught my team, and my dad taught me, that everything is a two-lane road,” he says. “Boise Cascade needs me just as much as I need them. So it’s a true partnership when it comes to Lummus Supply and Boise Cascade, both on the EWP and the distribution side.”Though these days Lummus works primarily in the office, his appreciation for the hard work and manual labor that has gone into building his family legacy still drives him.