National Lumber Starts to Open New Stores Again

Troubled National Lumber & Supply is recovering from the recent expansion of competing home improvement warehouse chains in Southern California and is starting to open new stores again, President and Chief Executive Officer Melvin Jaffee said Tuesday.

First-quarter sales at the Fountain Valley company’s 18 stores were up an average of 20% over the same period in 1986, Jaffee told about three dozen industry analysts at the Los Angeles Hilton. But fourth-quarter results will determine whether the company posts its first profit in four years, he said.

“Next year is our year,” Jaffee added.

National Lumber’s unaudited sales growth figures are impressive and could put the 45-year-old company back in the black, said Bo Cheadle, a retail industry analyst and partner at Montgomery Securities, a San Francisco-based investment bank. “I don’t see any reason why they can’t be profitable.”

National Lumber lost $2.42 million in its last fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 1987, and $154,000 in the preceding year ending Jan. 31, 1986.

2 Stores to Open

A 57,000-square-foot National Lumber store will open in Riverside County at the end of August, the company’s first new store in 21 months, Jaffee said. Another store of similar size will open in San Diego County in February, 1988, he said.

New store sites in Orange County are under negotiation, said Jaffee. “Wherever we’re not in Orange County, we’d like to be.”