EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Tuttle Lumber – The Ending of an Era

Publishers Corner

Melissa Jewett

Don Gilbreath remembers growing up in Tuttle Lumber. At age 9, he was sweeping floors, driving forklifts and following in the shadow of his father, who purchased the business from the Tuttle family in 1979. Tuttle Lumber Company has been a fixture of the community, of the Guadalupe Street landscape, and an integral part of the fabric that is San Marcos. Founded in 1950 by James Tuttle, few stores in San Marcos are as iconic as Tuttle Lumber Company.  From customer service to community participation and involvement, the employees of Tuttle Lumber have always strived to treat everyone like they were a part of their family. Now, after 65 years in business, Tuttle Lumber will be retiring its business and closing its doors in San Marcos. Thomas Rhodes of ETR Development Consulting, LLC, who are representing owner, Don Gilbreath, announced the store’s closing at last night’s Planning and Zoning meeting. I had an opportunity to sit down with Don, prior to the announcement, and get the history of Tuttle Lumber, the reasons behind this momentous decision, and what the future holds for the Tuttle Lumber Company family.

Melissa:         Why do you want to tell the story of Tuttle Lumber?

Don:              What my ultimate desire, at the close of this event, is that my employees can walk away with the same level of pride, dignity, and self-respect that they arrived with, and I want Tuttle Lumber to be remembered for the quality company that it was, and as a significant contributor and participant in the San Marcos community. We are very proud of who we are and where we’ve been, what we’ve done, how we’ve done it, and that must not be forgotten.

Melissa:         You had a choice of other media organizations in town to share Tuttle’s history and your story, why did you choose San Marcos Corridor News and me?

Don:               I confided to a couple of people, whose opinion that I value greatly, that I wanted to get the story of Tuttle Lumber to not only the residents of San Marcos, but also my customers, vendors, friends and employees. They all recommended you as someone, that I could not only trust, but that you were an extremely ethical and honest.

Melissa:         Thank you, that means a lot.

Every city or town has its own roots. Many people over the years have driven by your store and some have stopped in, while others did not. This closing will affect many people, businesses, and even the landscape of our city, while most of San Marcos will not understand the significance of the losing Tuttle Lumber.

Don:                It will become a historical event rather quickly. Some memories will fade, but those who Tuttle has been dearer to will cherish those memories.

Not only has this business been a tremendous part of my life over the years, but it has been for my employees’, too. Our retention rate speaks volumes and there is a lot as to why, it’s very emotional for me to even think of executing this decision; however, I am 100 percent confident for reasons we have yet to discuss as to why it’s necessary. I am making it a personal goal to help everybody secure new positions that will ideally offer them better opportunities than even I can offer.

Melissa:         Can you give me some history on Tuttle Lumber for those who may not know it?

Don:               Yes. Well, 1950 is when the founder James Tuttle started the lumber company, and I don’t really know what all went on up until 1979. I understand that Mr. Tuttle had passed and Mr. Shuley was the general manager and Mr. Tuttle’s children inherited the business, equal interest in the business, and all businesses go through trials and tribulations.

My dad was a very successful businessman, really a lifelong entrepreneur in the Houston area, and by the time I came along, I was the youngest of three, he was ready to relocate. He’d sold off his businesses and was ready to move the family to a slower pace of life.

In 1979, my dad got bored, he and a partner bought Tuttle Lumber Company from the Tuttle family, and of course, he engaged himself wholeheartedly as he did in everything else.

He was able to get the business back on a very aggressive growth track and I was 9 years old in ’79, so I immediately started working in the business at 9 years old. I mean, I was driving forklifts and trucks around the yard. I mean, I was contributing already at nine working in the hardware store. I worked with my dad at Tuttle through high school, and then I attended college here, at that time Southwest Texas. I took a break while in college, and then upon graduating I joined my dad full time and devoted my life to Tuttle Lumber Company.

We worked side by side for over 5 years and those are some of the best years of my life. We had always been very close. I was like his little buddy. I was what we now call a “Mini Me” to my dad. I mean, I just walked in his footsteps and just honored him. It was funny. Both of us were type A personalities, and very entrepreneurial minded. We didn’t know how well we would be able to work that closely together, literally side by side, then a friend helped me to realize this was, of course, a once in a lifetime opportunity and it would be much better to attempt it and fail, than to not and regret it.

My parents were older, and were essentially grandparent age and I feel very blessed for that. I mean, where I may not have experienced the quantity of time as other children, I received the quality time because of their age. They were that much wiser from their life experiences and were about, I feel, to have a much different influence on me, so I grew up more mature than my age, and, as a result, became a very young general manager and, ultimately owner of a lumber company.

It proved to be one of the greatest decisions of my life. Working side by side with him was incredible because he was not only my father, he became a mentor, a business partner, and a best man. It was awesome, truly awesome. He then started the retirement process and I was slowly purchasing more and more interest in the business over the course of the ‘90s. In 1999, he fully retired and I purchased his remaining stock. I had been managing the company since the early ‘90s, but in ’99 is when I assumed full ownership.

Melissa:         Since you had managed the company for a long period of time, did anything change on a daily basis when you assumed full ownership?

Don:              The burden did. When my dad and I were working together, I felt like we were sharing that burden. I had a safety net then, he was my rock, always had been. But it all fell on my shoulders after I became the owner. Everything goes back to the top and who’s at the top is 100 percent responsible for everything and everyone.

Melissa:         So you believe the buck stops with whoever is at the top?

Don:              Exactly, so I was definitely carrying a heavier load, but because of my age, energy, and stamina, I welcomed it. I was very ambitious and I had aggressive growth plans for the business. I wanted to take it where dad left off and beyond. I began to formulate a vision for the business as far as to how I wanted to develop it out and we were very blessed over the 2000’s and then … Well, actually up until ’09, so we had almost a 10-year run of just great business. We were obviously building the facility up in order to keep up with demand.

We were rocking and rolling just having so much fun, thru ’06, which was the peak year for our industry. That was just a Star Spangled Banner year, which we are likely to never see again. The absolute peak and then, in ’07 the activity across the nation dropped, but it was still, for us, above our 7 to 10 year average as far as annual sales so I was OK with that. In ’08 it dropped some more, and it dropped again then, down to our 7 to 10-year average.

I began to get nervous because it appeared that there was a trend establishing itself, but I felt as long as we don’t go any lower, we would be OK because a lumber company has an extremely high fixed overhead. It’s a high volume and low profit business. So unless you’re moving a lot of product, rarely are you going to be profitable, so it’s really tough. It’s a very tough business, very labor intensive, a bear of a business industry-wide in mid to large sized markets.

In 2008, like I said, we were back to our 7 to 10-year average, and then we started out ’09 slow and I was just getting more concerned, and then in the middle of ’09 the bottom fell out nationwide in the lumber and the building material industry. That’s when everybody in the industry experienced the crash and nobody was prepared for it. Nobody was expecting it. It caught the entire industry off guard. Over the course of the second half of ’09 really ’10, ’11, ’12, ’13 even. Some markets fell harder than others.

During that period, let’s say that 5-year period in the first 3 years, over 2,000 independent lumber yards went out of business across the nation, and most of these were just like us, mom and pop, single-store operators in all types of markets. What that recession did is it just gutted the industry, absolutely gutted the industry from the forestation level to end-user. Everyone would say, “it’s going to get better next year”, and next year would come and go, and it wasn’t getting better. We had, pretty much flat lined.

I mean, we lost in the middle of ’09, a large percentage of our volume, yet still had the same level of overhead to deal with and it took me about 2 years to down or to resize the company relative to sales.

It is easy to grow a business. That just takes capital as long as the demand is there. It just takes money. You have to have a demand, number one, but it’s incredibly difficult to downsize a business because there is no market to take your goods or your services to. Everybody is in the same boat you are.

I mean, you have a lot of fixed assets like buildings that you can’t sell, inventory that nobody was buying, so you just have to ride it out the best you can, and a lot of people did, and a lot of people didn’t.

It took me, again, about 2 years to right size us, and then we just kind of flat-lined from there. We did start to see a little bit of life come back to this market last year. This year we’ve had a lot of rainy, drizzly days and that’s hard on this type business, so this year is starting out slow, but I have a personal testimony that has come out of this experience.

Before the recession I, of course, being such an energetic entrepreneur and a product of a capitalistic society I thought I was in control. I thought I had the world by the you-know-what, and my passion was profit. I couldn’t have enough. I couldn’t get enough. I was an American child and then the recession hit.

Melissa:         You still are. You come by it naturally from your Dad, he taught and you learned.

Don:               My dad had already passed away in 2002, so I didn’t have that rock anymore. I hadn’t even realized it until really just a few years ago, to the extent that he was my foundation.

The recession brought me to my knees. I was just crying out to God and it wasn’t until then that I realized that I couldn’t go any further on my own that I had to have the support and the encouragement of Christ.

That’s when my transformation began, and from that point forward, my faith has grown every day since and it’s really cool. About 3 years ago, my family and I were baptized together. It was a public display of our commitment to Christ. That was a huge and significant point in my life.

That just further propelled me forward regarding my sanctification and now of all things I lead a Monday night study group, and am just so eager to serve Christ in a greater capacity.

The recession was the absolute worst, most traumatic thing that has ever happened to me professionally. However, it has turned out to be the greatest thing that ever happened to me personally. It changed me.

Coming out of the recession, like I said, that experience changed me and, now, I’m finding myself no longer focused or even obsessed with profit. Now, I’m obsessed with people and by that I mean serving people. That’s what this is all about.

Melissa:         When one door closes, another one opens. There are reasons for everything, and He has a plan for you.

Don:              Absolutely and I know it. I know He does. Really, what I’m doing is ultimately relieving myself of the burden and distraction of a retail business operation in order to make myself more available for Christ. This has been a very difficult decision. I have been really …

I’m lost for words, that difficult. Just struggling with it for over 2 years now, and I finally came to accept it. My heart was no longer in the business. I’ve lost my passion. My comment earlier about a small business owner being the business, that is so true. When that owner loses his passion, the business life cycle turns downward.

I got to the point I essentially had allowed myself to become so exhausted mentally, physically, emotionally that I had to take last year off. Somewhat of a sabbatical in order to restore my health mentally, physically, emotionally, in preparation for making the right decision. I am so blessed and so grateful that my team allowed me to do that.

Melissa:         They’re an outstanding team.

Don:               They are and they’ve been with me, many of them, for decades.

Without them being so qualified, so competent, so trustworthy, by no means would I have had the option to take last year off. Now having done so, I’ve ultimately come to this decision.

I’m very confident in my decision, as emotionally difficult as it is, I am very project oriented. I’m an organizer. I’m a planner, and I execute. I’m a goal achiever or exceeder, and I’m welcoming this challenge. I’ve never retired a business before. I’ve assumed ownership of them, I’ve run them, grown them, downsized them, and we started our Lockhart in 2010, as a branch location.

As far as my business experience, I pretty much touched on every area, but retiring a store. It will be my next challenge and, again, with the ultimate goal of all of us walking away with pride and dignity, and self-respect. We made the decision and the wheel is already rolling, it’s tough, but rolling.

Melissa:         I can’t imagine San Marcos without Tuttle Lumber.

Don:              I also can’t imagine not having Tuttle Lumber, as it’s been such a huge part of my life since I was 9. It really started to grow special to me, and, most importantly, the employees. We have been so blessed over the years with amazing customers who weren’t just customers. They were close friends. There was a generation of contractors that I grew up with that, unfortunately, have now retired or passed on

Melissa:         How old is your Mom?

Don:              Regina Gilbreath, will be 85 in October, and is currently in assisted living.

Melissa:         And your wife, how is DJ doing with this decision?

Don:              Well, like my mom, she hasn’t been involved in the business, but she, obviously, has been very impacted by it. Bless her heart, she felt the brunt of it during the recession along with myself. I have more respect and honor for her today than I ever have for hanging in there with me because I was such a mess.

I might have been there physically, but I wasn’t there emotionally or mentally. I was just going through the motions as a husband, and as a father, while I was so distracted.

I need to become that positive role model that all kids so desperately need. I am so blessed that I’ve never felt better than I do today and I attribute that 100 percent to my growing love for Christ.

Melissa:         Do you remember the one moment during the time where you realized hitting that brick wall and you knew at that moment you had to change your direction and the direction of everything else, and you were touched by God? Do you remember that moment?

Don:              I do, but I don’t know how to attribute it to a day or time or month.

Melissa:         Was it like the straw that breaks the camel’s back?

Don:              Exactly.

Melissa:         Do you remember that straw?

Don:              Absolutely, it was God who allowed that straw to break. I believe because if He hadn’t allowed me to become broken, He wouldn’t have had the opportunity to rebuild me.

Melissa:         Do you mind telling me what that straw was?

Don:              It was the fear of not making it. When my dad grew up he experienced the Great Depression, he always had a fear of going broke, of being bankrupt, a real fear.

Melissa:         I do every day, I think most people do.

Don:              I do, too.

Melissa:         I think most people need some type of security net.

Don:              Right. I’m the same way in business. I just felt almost hopeless because, I hadn’t really developed a relationship with Christ, yet.

I, fortunately, having gone through that trauma of being wholly broken was able to be reborn and have become a true believer. My story or testimony is not very different from everyone else’s. Everybody has a story and if they don’t think they do, they’re either too ignorant to realize it or it hasn’t happened yet, but everyone has a story. While they’re all unique in their own individual ways, it’s the same story in most cases.

Melissa:         It is just different causes.

Don:              Absolutely, every person, obviously, is living or deals with their own unique circumstances, but, it’s really an amazing experience.

Melissa:         What are you boys’ names?

Don:               I have Cody is our oldest, 13, and then Logan is our 11 year old. Also, in our family is Liberty Bell the miniature donkey, Herbie and Xander our Alpaca buddies, and then we have Pete the retired show goat, and then we have 10 chickens, one rooster, 2 barn cats, a Labrador, a house cat….We have three show steers. My son Cody shows steers in FFA and we have three steers. We have Tango, Norman, and Dozer, pretty funny, but we love animals. Yeah. We love just being surrounded by them and they provide me such a sense of peace.

Especially large animals like horses, cattle, or the mountains, the ocean, things that keep me in my place so to speak.

Melissa:         You mentioned you’re an A type personality and us A-type’s think of “retirement” as a dirty word. What do you want to do now, retire?

Don:               By no means am I intending to retire. I’m likely to never retire.

All I am doing is retiring not even from the hardware industry, but from the lumber and building material industry. That’s the industry that I felt was the hardest to deal with so that’s where I’m really burned out. We’re going to retire the entire operation here, but we still have a location in Lockhart, which we will keep.

Melissa:         You have a great team in San Marcos. Every time I go in I get outstanding customer service. You asked that this not be a eulogy, but this is a sad story, kinda like, an end of an era for San Marcos.

Don:              Yeah…I’m sad too.

Melissa:         Is there anything that San Marcos can do for your employees?

Don:              Brian McCoy is a friend. Our fathers grew close over the years, and with the relationship between our Fathers, it was natural for Brian and I to become friends as well, and we have maintained that friendship over the years. When I was getting close to making this decision, I made a point to call him, and he has so graciously offered to support and assist us in every way he possibly can.

Melissa:         In what ways?

Don:              McCoy’s has offered to interview every one of my employees, they are independent, and their culture, their philosophy has always mirrored ours. The stores have always traded and worked together very professionally and respectfully. In this business, especially after 35 years you’re not competing against just the other local suppliers. You’re competing against everybody and anybody within a 50-mile radius, which will include Austin and San Antonio. It’s an insanely competitive business and it’s gotten even more so since the recession.

We’re in a post-recession era now where the industry is first rebuilding itself and, obviously, the dynamics are very different than what I consider the old days and like everything else in society, not so much for the better. We now have my wholesalers selling directly to my customers and it’s just getting more and more difficult to operate in this area.

I want everyone to know and understand and I want to get that message out that McCoy’s did not force us out of business, and that nothing could be farther from the truth – Brian and I even had this discussion. McCoy’s and their team are great, and have been such a blessing during this turmoil. They have always been like a partner to us, and both companies send business back and forth.

The independent lumber yards are competing against some enormous national players and they have their own set of challenges, and we have always felt it was us and McCoy’s against everybody else.

Melissa:         What will happen to your current inventory?

Don:              We’re going to have a grand retirement and store closing sale event. This is a voluntary decision that I’ve, obviously been struggling with for over 2 years, and it’s going to be a very organized and structured event. We have every intention, just like we’ve done with everything else, to handle it as professionally as we can.

This is a total asset sale so everything must go … I don’t mean to sound like a furniture commercial, but everything must go, including our cantilever rack storage systems, and warehouse, I mean, everything is going to go.

Melissa:         What do you want the person who reads this story to remember the most?

Don:              Everything has a life cycle, whether it’s a person or a business everything on this earth has a life cycle.

I believe I needed to tell the story. After the dust settles, just cherish the memories and the life of Tuttle Lumber, not to mourn the closing or departure of it, but a business is an entity, like a person. It’s taxed like a person. It’s a living entity and has its own characteristics, its own identity, its own personality, all relevant to the, owner operator. No doubt, Tuttle Lumber has been an icon in this community for 65 years.

This is a big deal – most likely will be one of the largest events of the year when reflecting in 2016.

Melissa:         There are a lot people that will be impacted by your story and the closing of Tuttle Lumber-San Marcos after so many years. What do you want people to remember most from this conversation or

Don:               They’re the most dear to me. I mean, my employees I love them. I mean, they are closer than family to me. Customers would be second. We have been blessed. All these years we have been blessed with just wonderful customers and associates, whether it be vendors or affiliations, in no way would we have come this far had we not had such a strong support base. But this is the reason why I’ve been struggling with this decision for well over 2 years, now. Obviously, it’s because of the emotional aspect.

I spoke with Brian McCoy, CEO of McCoy’s Building Supply who said, “We have appreciated the opportunity to work with Don through this transition of his San Marcos location and wish him ongoing success as he continues to serve customers from his Lockhart location.” 

Dan Stauffer, Vice President of Marketing, and Real Estate for McCoy’s Building Supply described the long “partnership” with Tuttle Lumber. “Sometimes we both asked for business from the same customers. But when it came to either of us taking care of a specific customer, we both have the same goal—putting the customer first. Tuttle and McCoy’s share the same goal:  helping our San Marcos area independent builders be successful. There’ve been times when McCoy’s would pick up a product from Tuttle (or vice versa) to completely fill an order for delivery. We’ve always worked to take care of each other. It’s always been a mutually respectful relationship.”

NOTE: As always, the company philosophy and values of McCoy’s is very modest and humble in all of their business and community activities, which can only stem from an internal and true strong belief system.

Mr. Gilbreath has representation that will be handling the organization and marketing of the Grand Retirement Store Closing Sale and will be holding a news conference Friday, January 31st  at 11:00 AM to answer questions at the Tuttle Lumber San Marcos location.

Mr. Gilbreath is also requesting the press and media give him and his employees that time so they can concentrate on their customers and vendors and give them the attention they deserve.

Source: According to the Washington State Department on Natural Resources’ website, timber and stumpage prices are down “three and four percent, respectively, since the September forecast,” and “the timber revenue projection for the 2013-2015 Biennium is lowered 3.8 percent.”

http://www.dnr.wa.gov/BusinessPermits/Topics/EconomicReports/Pages/econ_timb_rev_forcsts.aspx