The Menke Group is thrilled to congratulate longtime client Ganahl Lumber on being named 2021’s Dealer of the Year in the $100 million+ category by LBM Journal, the leading media company serving the lumber/building material distribution industry.
Ganahl Lumber has been employee-owned since 1976
Ganahl Lumber has been providing quality lumber products to the greater Los Angeles metro area since 1884. Their current CEO, Peter Ganahl, is the fourth generation owner. After taking over the company at the young age of 27 following the sudden passing of his father, he became an early adopter of what was then a new concept in American business—the Employee Stock Ownership Plan. Peter Ganahl implemented an ESOP in 1976 and credits it with helping the company to build and retain their phenomenal staff.
“People at our company have stayed here long because of this,” Ganahl said.
When Peter Ganahl took over the reins of the company, Ganahl Lumber was a small company doing roughly $2 million in annual sales. Today, Ganahl Lumber has 925 employee-owners across their 10 locations, including many who have now been with the company for over 30 years. The company had $500 million in sales last year.
The tremendous growth of the company has been reflected in the valuation of their ESOP. Individual shares were valued at $88 when Ganahl Lumber’s ESOP was first installed. Today each share is valued at $17,000, an increase of nearly 20,000% that has created substantial wealth for many of their employees.
“If you compare the growth in the value of Ganahl shares to S&P 500 over this same period of time, our shares have performed well,” Ganahl said. “We can have a really productive salesman at 30 or one in his 60s who are both making the same in paychecks, but the one who has been here 40 years is making a lot more wealth in shares.”
With their ESOP serving to attract and retain top talent, Ganahl Lumber has been able to focus their energy on providing a superb customer experience, as well as on precisely understanding and meeting the needs of their customers, most of whom are professional builders with high expectations for their suppliers.
LBM Journal gives their annual Dealer of the Year award to four companies of different sizes “in which leadership excels at identifying underserved— or emerging—markets, satisfying customers, and constantly working to grow and improve business.”
Congratulations to Ganahl Lumber for this very well-deserved honor.
Read LBM Journal’s full profile of Ganahl Lumber here.
To learn how an ESOP can help to grow your business, contact Menke today.
Menke & Associates, Inc. has helped over 3,500 companies successfully transition to employee ownership. Our holistic ESOP approach enables a positive outcome for the company, its employees and its shareholders. We believe ownership is powerful.
