Redesigned 84 Lumber Stores Will Cater to Consumer Retail Segment

84 Lumber unveiled a new store prototype on Tuesday that features new products and a new layout designed to attract and service do-it-yourselfers and retail customers. The new locations will feature design centers for kitchens and baths, more railing, decking, and door displays and aisles of products such as paint, plumbing fixtures, gas grills and potted plants.

The Eighty-Four, Pa.-based company plans to apply the prototype to about 70 existing stores, but did not provide details as to when and where that would happen. The current prototype is located at the company’s headquarters.

A look inside the new 84 Lumber store prototype Jeff Nobers, 84’s vice president of marketing and public relations, said the company is seeking to attract do-it-yourselfers. Nobers said the move it to pursue a “consumer business that tailed off during residential building boom years.” The company does not plan to pay any less attention to its contractor customers, however and will continue to offer the same service to them.

Nobers said the company plans to have 15 stores with this design by the end of the year and then plans to add about 15 stores each quarter during next year until they reach 70. The vast majority of these types of locations will be located in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions, but there may be a few west of the Mississippi River.

Like many LBM dealers, 84 laid-off many employees and closed a number of stores over the past five years. The No. 5 dealers on this year’s ProSales 100 operated 301 stores at the start of 2010, but is now down to 262 locations with $1.38 billion in sales during 2010.