Pace of M&A, Openings and Closures Has Speeded Up This Quarter from Last Year

LBM facilities that opened (green), closed (red) or were involved in deals (blue), Jan. 1 to March 13, 2018

During the first two and a half months of 2018, a total of 49 LBM facilities opened, closed, or were involved in mergers and acquisition deals. By that same point this year, we're already up to 78 locations. Of those, 53 yards were part of 18 different M&A deals, there were nine greenfield openings, and 16 yards closed. Here are some of the most notable recent events from February onward:

* DuBell Lumber, a seven-store operation in southern New Jersey, went out of business. A family squabble was partly to blame, press reports said.

* SRS Distribution continued to be one of the most active companies. In late February, it purchased the four-unit, Louisiana-based Roofing Products and Building Supply while opening three greenfield operations in the Carolinas and Florida. And at the start of February, it created an entirely new division--Heritage Landscape Supply--and stocked it with 17 irrigation and landscape stores located in Colorado and Indiana.

* ABC Supply's gypsum specialist, L&W Supply, purchased Delta Gypsum, which has six stores in North Carolina, and a one-unit sister firm, Tennessee-based Appalachian Gypsum. Meanwhile, gypsum specialty rival GMS acquired Commercial Builders Group, a two-store operation in Louisiana.

* ABC Supply opened a new store in Gloucester, Va.

* Among lumberyards, BMC doubled down on the Charlotte market in February by acquiring three-unit Locust (N.C.) Lumber to go along with its January acquisition of single-store Barefoot & Co.

* Also in the lumberyard community, Mid-Cape Home Centers acquired Wood Lumber of Falmouth, Mass.; Spahn & Rose bought Dunn Lumber of Lake Geneva, Wis. (not to be confused with the Seattle-based Dunn Lumber); Comanche Home Center stayed inside Lawton, Okla., to buy Easton's Ace Hardware; and Griffin (Ga.) Lumber bought Blake Builders Supply of the same city along with its truss unit, Specialty Structural Products.

* Roofing specialist Foundation Building Materials went north of the border, acquiring Builders' Supplies Ltd. of Ontario, Canada.

* Finally, Mans Lumber revealed plans to open a showroom in Ann Arbor, Mich. Mans already has hired a number of employees from Fingerle Lumber, which intends to close and sell much of its property to the University of Michigan.