CHELAN - When it came time for Brett La Mar to hand over the reins to his family business, Lake Chelan Building and Supply, he wanted a buyer who would embody his parents’ motto – where customers become friends.
“I always thought that was the cheesiest line,” La Mar said. “I'm like, oh my gosh, you guys, we got to come up with something different, you know. But the more I sat there with them, and the more I became part of this community, I'm like, that's perfect.”
Now under TAL Holdings, also known as TAL Building Centers, a family-owned business out of Vancouver, Wash., the company’s values remain intact.
TAL's tagline, "Building Better Communities," aligns closely with Lake Chelan Building Supply's motto, "Where Customers Become Friends." Both emphasize a customer-first approach and a commitment to contributing to the community rather than only prioritizing profit, La Mar said.
La Mar’s parents Edd and Sharon La Mar started Lake Chelan Building and Supply in 1979 in Manson. They recognized the need for a building supply store as the valley was starting to expand and there was a lot of new construction.
Edd had worked at a local lumber yard in Chelan and had the potential to buy in and be a partner. However, at the last minute the lumber yard chose a different partner. Edd then used the money his father had left him to start his own lumberyard in Manson.
There wasn't much to Marson at that time so people questioned the decision but it turned out to be a smart move. He bought an acre of horse pasture and started the lumberyard.
The store had humble beginnings, interest rates were high so not a lot of people were building at the time. But things turned around fairly quickly and by the mid 80s they were an established business.
La Mar was 12 when they opened the store and he worked there sweeping floors and stocking shelves.
In 1993, in a classic underdog story turn of events, Edd was approached by the new owner of the Chelan lumber yard that he tried to buy into in 1979. Their business was not doing well and they asked the La Mars to buy it. So the La Mars bought a second lumber yard and that became their Chelan location. That store has now moved into the old Valley Tractor building near Chelan Falls.
However there were hard times, too. In 1992, La Mar’s mother, Sharon, was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and given a bleak prognosis. Edd told his son ‘if you’re ever going to come back, now is the time.’
At first he was a little reluctant to come back. He was newly married, had a promising career and his wife had just started a teaching job with a premier school district in Seattle.
“At the time, I was very reluctant, but I would not change a thing,” he said. “It’s probably the best decision I’ve ever made.”
“So I had the opportunity to run the family business side by side with my mom and dad, which is not a thing you see very much anymore,” La Mar said. “So really, a great opportunity.”
Sharon sought a second opinion and decided to pursue alternative treatment for her cancer and lived another 17 years.
“My wife and I raised our kids here,” he said. “She was a school teacher. Then, unfortunately, she also came down with cancer, and my mom passed in 2009, my wife passed in 2011 both of cancer. But I remarried and adopted my wife's son and we raised our three kids here in town.”
“Then my dad passed and it went from, you know, my mom and dad and I running the business together, to my dad and I running the business together to me running the business by myself,” he said.
La Mar asked his children if they had any interest in coming home to help run the store but they all had their own ambitions. That helped him to know the direction he wanted to go with the business.
He was approached by TAL Holdings known as TAL Building Centers, a family-owned business out of Vancouver, Wash. The company was looking to expand and had recently bought the Marson and Marson stores in Leavenworth, Wenatchee and a few other locations in Northwest Washington.
TAL had approached La Mar’s father previously but the timing wasn’t right then. This was actually the third time they had approached La Mar. This time he decided he should listen to what they had to say. He knew there was only a small group of people who would actually be able to purchase and successfully run a lumberyard.
He liked that they are family owned and that they would keep him and all of his employees.
“I was 52 and really was not looking to do something else, but I also knew the opportunity of them purchasing us was not going to come around many more times,” he said.
“I just like the way everything lined up,” he said. “I liked the idea that all my employees got to stay and had opportunities inside of this new company that I could never give them.”
La Mar did not have the resources of his parents to help shoulder the responsibility anymore.
“The exposure and the risk that we were taking as a family was getting very large, with upwards to 40 employees and a million dollars in inventory, it just kind of got a little scary,” he said. “It's like, wow, if you wreck this ship it's gonna mess up a lot of people's lives. And I just thought, you know what, this may be the time for me to hitch our trailer to a much larger vessel, with larger resources that can take this thing to the next level, and I can be a part of that.”
La Mar works in upper management for TAL Holdings and still owns the property.
La Mar shared that TAL Holdings is committed to preserving the legacy of the stores they acquire, avoiding rebranding or drastic changes. Instead, they’ve leveraged their network of 31 stores, providing greater buying power, resources, and access to vendors, allowing the business to grow in ways he couldn’t have achieved on his own.
That commitment to the community and customers is what has kept the business strong for 46 years.
The business recognized early on that competing on price alone against major retailers like Home Depot, Lowe's, or large lumber yards like Builders FirstSource was unrealistic. Instead, they focused on other strengths, understanding they couldn't match the scale of billion-dollar companies.
“But the thing we thought we could do was we could customize our service and our quality to meet the expectations of our customers, and so that's what we went to bat with,” he said. “We knew we had to be competitive.”
They knew they couldn't be overly expensive or no one would buy from them. But they also knew they could offer quicker deliveries and other services that larger companies couldn’t justify financially. They prioritized a friendly staff and ensured they had the products customers needed when they needed them, La Mar said.
“I mean, really honestly, running a lumberyard isn’t brain surgery or rocket science, pretty simple stuff,” he said. “Get up every day. Have the product, do what you said you're gonna do, and just every day, rinse, wash, repeat. Yeah, that sounds easy on paper, but to actually execute it takes a lot of dedication and tenacity and focus.”
Lake Chelan Building Supply wants to continue to be a part of the community for a long time. For La Mar that means contributing to the community with action, not just words, and living it every day.
“Our family appreciates this valley,” he said. “I stayed here in the valley because I immersed myself so far in this community that I'm not sure I'm ever gonna leave.”
Even though La Mar and his family are not technically running a business anymore they are still ingrained in the community and want to see TAL Building Centers succeed because it’s good for the community and their family name and legacy are still tied to the business.
TAL Building Centers and the La Mar family were big donors to the community center as they want to see it succeed. They align on their desire to support and be a part of the community.
“When my mom was going through her cancer treatment, when my wife was going through her cancer treatment, community surrounded us, and we very much felt loved and (the community) mourned with us when they passed,” he said.
“I'm just so happy to have made the choice that I made back in the day, and I'm so glad my mom and dad decided to do what they did, even though it seemed to be a little bit against the odds,” he said. “It's created a good story and a lot of great memories for our community and for our family.”
Quinn Propst: 509-731-3590 or quinn@ward.media.
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