By this time in 2024, the LBM world had learned of 27 acquisitions involving 40 facilities. This year, only nine such deals have been reported, and they have encompassed just 14 locations.
The biggest to date involves Builders FirstSource, which purchased O.C. Cluss Lumber's four locations in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia.
US LBM made two single-store purchases, both of them significant. In acquiring Walker Lumber of Nashville, TN, US LBM not only landed a multiple award-winning dealer, it entered fast-growing Tennessee for the first time. Also, US LBM boosted its offerings in central and western Michigan by buying Goodrich Bros., a hardwoods moulding specialist headquartered in Pewamo, between Lansing and Grand Rapids.
84 Lumber historically hasn't been a buyer of facilities, but truss plants might be an exception. In January, 84 bought Tri-County Truss of Bloomsburg, PA. The dealer also boosted its trussmaking capacity when it announced the opening of a plant in Newark, DE, which it bought last June from Warren Truss.
Curtis Lumber took over JAY-K Independent Lumber Corp., of New Hartford, NY, and then announced it was folding its Waterville, NY, operation into JAY-K's site.
There have been four hardware store deals this year: Aubuchon Ace Hardware bought three Noble Ace Hardware locations in Cobleskilly and Cambridge, NY, and Rutland; VT; Ace Hardware Corp.'s Westlake Ace Hardware acquired Augusta (KS) Ace Hardware; Karl Smith took over Aborn True Value Hardware in Brookline, MA, from Jose Monroy, and Charlie Patton sold his Buford Street Ace Hardware in Gaffney, SC, to a new owner.
Webb Analytics' database lists 45 greenfield store openings that have occurred or are planned to happen in 2024, plus 11 stores that have or will closed. One of them is US LBM's Meek's yard in Redding, CA. BFS plans to close two facilities in Jacksonville, FL, and move them into a big new operation sometime in late spring.