Of course, that’s the whole idea behind Stock leveraging the best practices among its market districts and orchestrating local big builder supply to be as consistent as possible. One of Brown’s favorite aspects of the whole evolution has been the ability for Stock to retain—and in many cases offer additional value to—its traditional custom home builder base. “Serving production builders means carrying a wider and more dependable inventory that can include things like low-E glass windows that we may have never offered before,” he says. “We have more experience with takeoffs, more experience with electronic billing. Serving production builders ensures that we have enough work to keep our installation crews attached to us on a year-round basis, so those services are available to custom contractors now as well.”
When Brown sums up Stock’s production builder strategy from his perspective at the local level, it almost sounds easy. “I think it takes great foresight to see that we need to partner with these people,” he says. “After that, all it takes is commitment on our end. From builder to builder, we have to find their need, and we have to fill it.”
Vital Statistics
Company: Stock Building Supply
Year founded: 1992
Headquarters: Raleigh, N.C.
Number of locations: 270
Number of employees: 15,200
2005 fiscal year sales: $4.1 billion
Pro sales percentage: 97 percent
