gillman home center

Gillman Home Center - Gillman Home Centers' 12 Do It Best stores do not carry a cookie-cutter assortment and strive to keep shoppers local. »

In 1962, Carl Gillman founded Gillman Brothers Lumber in Brookville, Ind., primarily to support his construction company. His son Charlie worked with him in construction for many years and was the only one of 10 children who wanted to join him in the lumber business.

Gillman Home Center

It took Charlie nearly 20 years to open his own lumberyard, but today Gillman Home Centers operates 12 Do it Best stores in Indiana and western Ohio.

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Charlie Gilman's retail strategy is to locate stores in small towns, provide a deep selection, great prices and unparalleled customer service. He put his phone number on his business card and encouraged employees and customers to call him 24/7.

Charlie's son, Curtis, serves as COO and manages day-to-day operations. His other son, Travis, is a special operations manager and oversees equipment rentals and manages their fleet of 100 trucks, including a repair garage with three full-time mechanics.

The company is making acquisitions, growing its market share by 50 percent in the past year. On August 1 of this year, new stores were added in Lebanon and Frankfort, India. Gillman Home Centers opened a new store in Eaton, Ohio in October 2017. Aurora Lumber in Aurora, Ind., which is 150 years old, was also acquired by Gilman last October, although the location was 300 yards away. From Lowe's.

Charlie Gillman has grown Gillman Home Centers into a 12-store home chain with a focus on retailing in small towns. »

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"We're like a Depot in a small town, with a 17,000-square-foot store that will serve a town of 2,500," Charlie said. "Customers tell us all the time that your store has everything."

Charlie said that Do it Best Corp. has played a major role in the development of his business over the years. “I like the fact that Do the Best is very responsive to our needs. If we want to bring a product, they listen to us. Their wooden temple is too big for us."

Although Gillman Home Centers has about 300 employees, they have very little turnover. "If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your customers," Charlie said. “When I hire someone, I ask them to enjoy going to work. You'll love working here, we'll fix it, or you'll move. I hire slow and rapid fire. "

Charlie and his wife, Donna, host an annual summer camp for workers in their backyard, with over 300 people attending. Charlie hires a team and has experience with fireworks. Then the next week they do the same with the customer. "There is no other company that cares as much about its employees as we do," says Charlie.

Dealer Of The Year: Gillman Home Center

Gillman Home Centers, which gets about two-thirds of its sales from private individuals, sells everything from lumber and cabinetry to flooring and mattresses. »

If you want your employees to deliver higher value to customers, it helps if you practice what you preach. Charlie tells Donna about the old minivan they are going to sell. He decided to keep it and make it available for all employees to use for family vacations, free of charge. The minivan was used almost non-stop.

Charlie is an avid reader, so he started a Book of the Month Club. "If anyone wants that month's copy, we'll give it away for free," Charlie said, noting that his HR now has a library of 300 to 400 books.

Gillman Home Centers sells a wide variety of home appliances, including $70,000 worth of shingles for Florida. Other major categories are home decor, cabinets, flooring, paint and wholesale plumbing.

Lumber & Building Supplies

Charlie likes to open stores in small towns where other stores don't do what they do. "We are bringing people back to the city," he said. "Frankfort is a city of 16,000 people, and we will be the only grocery store or LBM in town."

The company derives 65 to 70 percent of its sales from customers. Three of the shops even sell beds, and 11 out of 12 are rented. "We don't have groceries, but we cut our stores in the towns we live in," Charlie said.

Gillman Home Center sales have doubled over the past five to six years, much of it organic growth. As Charlie likes to say. “In business, as in life, do what you're good at. All of our stores are home centers that offer everything you need to build a home. "

While the home business is still focused on growth, Charlie and his management team also remember that the goal is to be the best home business they can be. “We don't get stores just because we have them. We only get in if we can do it well,” Charlie said.

Gillman Home Center To Break Ground On Their New Home Center

While winning the Beacon award is great, Charlie says customer service is the best reward. As he explains, "if you work hard and treat people the way you want to be treated, everything works out."

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