Get Our Email Newsletter

Best of both worlds: Penn Valley True Value serves ranch and high-end

hardware store

paint department

lumber building materials

LBM Resources

White Paper: Building Supply Industry Insights Report 2022

With most businesses now running hybrid ERP, our report reveals what hard-working building suppliers really require from their ERP partners and solutions.

lawn equipment

Scott Gutierrez and his wife, Rory, focus on supporting both the residential and the farm and ranch markets in the Penn Valley, Calif. region. The small-town hardware store expanded its lumber and building materials selection and has perfected the art of special orders.

LBM addition

If Gutierrez learned one thing from his post-college job at Meek’s, it was that he needed to expand his hardware store to include lumber and building materials. While his lot size doesn’t allow for a full-line stocked lumberyard, Gutierrez special orders “pretty much anything for any customer.”

“We’ve expanded the LBM side quite a bit,” he says. “We’ve brought convenience lumber, composite decking, pressure treated lumber, added Simpson Strong-Tie, and now we have contractor customers who buy full house packages from us.”

- Advertisement -

The decision to bring on LBM inventory has helped secure business in a town that serves as a supply stop for a nearby affluent gated community. Penn Valley itself is what Gutierrez refers to as “a cowboy town.” It’s near enough to ranches that locals sometimes call the town “PennTucky”.

The dichotomy of the two areas has worked out well for Gutierrez. On one side, contractors purchase full house packages, while on the other side the store also includes a separate nursery and gift shop. His farm and ranch sales took off to the point he was able to open a fence and ranch supply division. Penn Valley True Value also supports the building, remodeling, hardware, retail, and decorating needs of the nearby gated community. The store now serves about 80% retail customers and 20% pro contractors.

“We’re like a convenience store,” Gutierrez says. “We cater to everyone.”

- Advertisement -

It’s the blend of small town hardware store and the 12 years at Meek’s Lumber Company’s more corporate structure that has allowed Gutierrez to thrive in Penn Valley. When the store opened in 2011, there were six employees. Now the store employs 52, overseen by Manager Matt Buhman, who Gutierrez recruited from the Placerville store. Gutierrez said he recognized Buhman’s degree and skills in mechanical engineering and offered him a management position at the store that he said would challenge and reward him as much as any engineer role.

“My philosophy is always to make sure everyone is on the right seat on the bus,” Gutierrez says, referring to his approach of identifying talent and placing that talent in the right position within the company. “As an engineer, Matt solves problems. He’s the guy who looks at the process and procedures and makes sure we’re as efficient as possible.”

The outside sales seat is just one of the seats that Gutierrez occupies on the Penn Valley True Value bus. He is the company’s sole outside salesperson and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Being in a small town, it really speaks volumes when I come out to the jobsite to see how our customers are doing,” he says.

Competition

Just 10 miles away in Grass Valley, there are five independent lumberyards that Penn Valley competes with, but Gutierrez quickly found that there is a natural advantage that works in his favor.

“The difference is that it’s a 1,000-foot elevation climb. People feel like they don’t want to go there. We give them a reason not to go up that hill. They’d rather support their community than make that trip, so when we opened it was huge. We had lines going through the store.”

And at Penn Valley True Value, those lines have apparently continued. The doubled projected revenue from year one has now been turned into three times that amount. It’s not unusual anymore to anticipate a double-digit increase in sales year-over-year, Gutierrez says.

“With the opportunity of expanding into niche areas along with improving our selection of products and maintaining our customer service, we have continued to grow very rapidly.”

penn valley statistics

More than 70% of Penn Valley’s sales are on a rewards card system. To recognize that loyalty, the team at Penn Valley True Value personalizes those transactions. “We instill that the cashiers, as the first person a customer sees and often the last person they see, need to offer smiles and good customer service,” Gutierrez says.

It is because of the community of Penn Valley that his business has grown. “We’re always listening and always changing along with our customers. I think people are going to shop where they feel comfortable to shop. I’m really happy with how successful we’ve been, but we’re nothing without the community. The community is such a huge part of our business model.”

Gutierrez believes so much in the community, that he tells his staff members to give out his personal phone number to any customer who has an issue, and he encourages them to make use of it.

“One of the greatest compliments I’ve heard at the store, is someone said, ‘I feel like I should take my shoes off because I’m coming into someone’s home.’ That’s how we run our business. Our customers are our guests. We make sure they have a great experience, and we make sure they’re comfortable. Whether they’re a pro or DIY customer, we try to greet everyone by name.”

There’s no sign that the growth is over for Penn Valley True Value. Gutierrez says he would like to replicate in another area. “We’ve been so focused in the past six years on growing through the support of our community in Penn Valley that we haven’t looked at expanding, but it’s definitely something we see in our future,” he says.

Get our free newsletter

Join thousands of other lumber and building material industry leaders and keep up with the companies, people, products and issues shaping the industry.

What's New

Digital Partners

Become a digital partner ...

Sales Comp Study

Download this 55-page, in-depth study by LBM Journal of industry trends in sales force compensation and benefits. See how your organization stacks up.

Webinars

- Advertisement -

White Papers

View all ...

- Advertisement -

Partner Content

View all ...

- Advertisement -

Registration is now open for the LBM Strategies 2024 Conference