Brian Mccoy

Partner BRIAN MCCOY AND HIS FAMILY are committed to keeping McCoy’s Building Supply a partner with ranching and homebuilding families – actually, with anyone who’s “born to build.” By AFAMILY ELLEN H. BRISENDINE B rian McCoy is a lively and welcoming individual, but he really lights up when he talks about the people who populate the McCoy’s community. McCoy’s Building Supply has long been recognized as a family-friendly workplace. The ethic on which grandfather Frank McCoy and father Emmett McCoy founded and developed one of the largest family-owned businesses in the Brian McCoy and his family of colleagues at McCoy’s Building Supply are in locations accessible to large- and small-acreage ranchers. They count the heavy-duty do-it-yourselfers in the ranching community as one of their important client groups and offer supplies, service and support. Brian McCoy, Betty Crawford, Thom Wirtz and Daniel Gooding are making the San Marcos location a showcase for McCoy’s. building supply category mirrors the family model of the ranching community. “We do enjoy celebrating the family,” Brian McCoy says. “That sure parallels the ranch and farm community. We’re in the home building business,” he says, and adds with emphasis, “and we like that!” Frank McCoy started as a roofing contractor in 1920s Houston and soon relocated to Galveston. “Then after World War II – my father was a young man – he and my grandfather started selling roofing, plywood and miscellaneous supplies as a sideline,” McCoy says. “Pretty soon, that sideline became bigger than the roofing business. That’s how McCoy’s developed.” The father-son team earned a reputation for fair dealing. One notable way was by holding their prices steady, rather than raising prices, after the devastation of Hurricane Carla in 1961. By 1964, Emmett discontinued the roofing contractor portion of their business and the McCoy family concentrated on increasing the reach of their retail building supply centers. “We’ve always been a family business,” third-generation Brian says. “It’s been ingrained in me and I love supporting the commitment to families.” Part of their commitment to family is to be closed on Sunday. He explains, “If you’re in the retail business, you’re working long hours. We do that, often six days a week. I like to give the depend- Before this photo was taken, customer and friend George Forrester told Brian McCoy that the folks inside the store had steered him to the right product for his project. tomers and in the last decade has identified ranchers as a fourth important group of customers, … to be part of people’s homes, ranches and farms is special for McCoy’s. able Sunday off. We have no plans to change that. Our teams love to have that dependable day for their worship and to be there for family.” McCoy, president and chief operating officer, and Dan Stauffer, vice president of marketing and real estate for McCoy Corporation, explain McCoy’s Building Supply has cultivated relationships with three groups of cuswhich somewhat overlaps the other three. Those three groups are the heavy-duty do-it-yourselfer; the repair/remodeler; and the independent home builder. These types of customers are also planners who find it easy to get to a McCoy’s on a weekday or Saturday and don’t seem bothered by the fact the store lights are out on Sunday. “I think as we target our customer, and not market quite to the masses that we used to, that’s allowed us to be closed on Sunday and not feel as much pressure,” McCoy says. He continues to describe the groups. “The home-owner customers still like the service they can get at a McCoy’s store. They are buying often enough to know the difference between coming to our store” and a big box retailer. McCoy describes the repair/remodel community as their pro’s and tradesmen that come in the store on a weekly, if not daily, basis. That’s everything from the fix-it-up guy to the remodeler doing an entire room addition or house addition and everything in between – the drywallers, painters, electricians, plumbers, deck builders. They are not in new construction, but they are always out there doing projects for others. “Then the independent home builder is our third category of customer,” as opposed to the big national home builders. Geography often determines the size of the farmer/rancher category. For example, McCoy admits they don’t sell much farm and ranch equipment through their Galveston Island location, but “you get just about anywhere else, you have a chance to sell farm and ranch products. There are cattle and horses all over this cotton picking state!” McCoy’s Building Supply has 85 locations in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas and Mississippi. “We just opened our 85th location in Alpine,” McCoy says, clearly excited at the prospect. And, it’s close to their family ranch. Stauffer adds, “It’s amazing what percentage of our independent builders have cattle and have farm accounts. Then, the typical target do-it-yourselfers typically are more rural, have a few acres, so they’ll have some livestock. That’s where this blends so well together.” McCoy and Stauffer agree that the demographics of ranch- ing have changed from 10 years ago. “We didn’t have the kind of computer system years ago to track the customer like we do today. But definitely our ranching customers owned larger ranches and were buying fencing supplies. Oftentimes, their crews were doing some fencing. Today, the big ranches have gotten outside contractors doing the fencing,” McCoy says. He has observed that the average herd size in the areas around McCoy’s stores has become smaller. “We know the typical rancher in Texas and in other of our markets, very frequently, is making a living in some other way, too. They are enjoying that rural lifestyle and raising cattle. “That’s where we feel we provide great service as far as product mix, store locations, and availability. We’ve put a lot of emphasis in recent years on that category for a couple of reasons. One is our locations. Second, we really have the outdoor space to handle the products (ranchers can use), and we deliver them. That’s service we can sell.” On some of the smaller acreage ranches, “folks are doing their own fencing, their own cattle handling. They need the set up! We want to be a part of that,” McCoy says. As a result, McCoy’s Building Supply has developed relationships with quality farm and ranch equipment manufacturers and suppliers, such as Priefert for cattle handling equipment and Stay-Tuff for high-tensile fencing products. “On the fencing side,” he explains, “the whole selection of fencing products has changed. Used to be, you had some barbed wire and you had some field fence and there weren’t any options on high tensile, or options we’re seeing today. It’s been fun to be able to offer more variety in that arena.” The variety of fencing supplies includes their own Tuf-Mac brand, supplied by Oklahoma Steel and Wire. McCoy adds they provide a much wider variety of gates for cattle and horse owners, in all sizes, shapes and gauges. “We weren’t stocking any panels before and now we have a full line and options on types and gauges and so forth,” he chuckles. And, if a store doesn’t have a specific product, it can be ordered for pickup or delivery. That goes for any product McCoy’s sells, including the lumber products on which the business was built. New, renew, re-invest The 85th McCoy’s Building Supply has just opened in Alpine. This is the first new store in a new market for them in several years. “Over the last almost 10 years, we’ve been trying to take our existing locations and reinvest in them,” he explains. “We’ve had a strategy of either improving our facilities or moving them.” Several factors cause the McCoy’s team to consider a new market. “For instance, Alpine was underserved, we thought, in terms of building products. So far we’ve been well received.” Stauffer agrees, explaining, “We look at high growth areas. We look for areas where independents are building. On the consumer side, we like high population growth and large family size. There seems to be a correlation there. “Age of housing is important for us to look at. Those are factors we blend. As long as we have job growth, jobs created in an individual market, there are going to be new homes built,” Stauffer continues. McCoy’s has been in some cities for enough years that the pattern of growth may have shifted, or original business neighbors may have moved or declined. Or, perhaps the old location isn’t large enough to allow them to expand the store as they’d like. “It’s either we’re in a solid location with enough space to get our facility up to standard, or we need to move,” McCoy explains. “A great example would be right here in San Marcos.” Their original location didn’t lend itself to the traffic they wanted and wasn’t what they considered a good location for their showcase store. “We decided to move this store. There is so much growth to the west of town and in the hills. “Plus,” he adds with a chuckle, admitting to some business related vanity, “Our own home town needs to have a really kicking store!” As a result, the San Marcos McCoy’s is west of I-35 on Wonder World Drive, easily accessible to new homes being situated in the picturesque hills of western Hays County and an easy drive from town on a surface road, freeing patrons from the hassles of the notoriously bad traffic of I-35 near the Outlet Mall. Besides investing in their physical locations, McCoy’s Building Supply has a culture of investing in their people. McCoy says the company-wide voice mail system is a great tool to send announcements to hundreds of people in a few seconds. But, it doesn’t replace the handshake and one-on-one communication. The company newsletter is often filled with employment anniversaries numbering 10, 20, 30 years or more. “I was just at our store in Richwood,” McCoy says, “and one of the men that works in our store out there next month celebrates 35 years with our company. We celebrate those things! I keep up with the birthdays of about 300 McCoy people out of our whole team, and anniversary dates for about the same size group.” McCoy laughs and admits the lumber and building material business may not be a glamorous career field to a young part-time employee, but he does have some examples of “home-grown successes.” “Matt Ramos was a young man who worked part time in our Kingsville location. He is managing the El Campo location today. When he was a part-timer, he had someone encourage him and tell him this could be a career. “Then we have the truly wholly homegrown in Toni Hill, manager at Brownwood. She started with the crew, then became assistant manager. Then when the opportunity came up, she became the manager. We do recruit from the outside, but we also recruit from within our ranks.” College graduates are welcome at McCoy’s, but folks without college degrees shouldn’t be deterred from applying for positions. McCoy says, “There are some pretty dedicated, smart, savvy people who don’t have degrees. We love finding them and giving them responsibility they can handle.” Is the McCoy’s work force, like all work forces, getting grayer? McCoy leans forward and answers quickly, “Yeah and we’re fine with that!” He continues, “We have some men in their 80s today who are part-time with us still. We are really quite fine with that, and frankly I have had this feeling for a while that the older we get the more we really value some of the service we’re trying to provide.” Out-service the 800-pound gorilla The building supply business is highly competitive. The McCoy’s Building Supply in San Marcos is on the road to Lowe’s and just a few exits down from Home Depot. How does one compete with, not one, but two 800pound gorillas in the same town? Unfazed, McCoy’s eyes practically gleam at the challenge, “We compete all the time in that scenario. You have to compete on the focus. Our lumberyard selection is greater than Home Depot or Lowe’s. Think about the things that are in our yard, real core things – forestry products. We don’t try to compete with their ceiling fan or light fixture selection.” He continues, “We focus on what we’re really good at. Our delivery service is very important. Our service in the store is very important. We have customers who value all those things. “Same on the fencing side, too. We’ll have a certain set of products by location, because some locations have a broader selection or the space for it. If we don’t have it, we just order it for a customer.” The outside lumber yards at McCoy’s locations provides them with more space than typical big box retailers to store and display farm and ranch supplies. McCoy explains another of their theories – the woman of the family really seems to drive the projects in the heavy-duty do-ityourselfer category. Therefore, “We want our stores to be very female-friendly,” he smiles. They accomplish that by greeting every customer who enters a store and make them – male and female – feel that help is on the way. “We don’t bat 1000, but we’re really working on our percentage so that somebody can be supported when they come into one of our stores,” McCoy says. McCoy and Stauffer say national competitors bring challenges and opportunities to their stores. While the national stores have taken away occasional buyers of building or repair products, they have found the serious do-ityourselfers, semi- and professional builders recognize the help McCoy’s offers them through professional advice and support, such as their delivery service. Stauffer adds, “We really focus a lot on all of us having a relationship or connection with customers. That’s not something that’s talked about in a lot of companies.” The next generations McCoy’s Building Supply is facing the same generational transfer issues ranchers face. Emmett McCoy turned 84 this year and spent the last several years turning the business and ranching operations over to the next generations. “We have a great partner- ship,” McCoy says of the family members and their children. “You talk about the succession in family businesses, I know that’s a big thing in the ranching industry. Our folks have handled that really well.” McCoy says his father, “has been very dedicated to getting the ownership down to the next generation. I credit my father for realizing the tax man is going to come,” and then set about working through the ownership shift of McCoy’s Building Supply, McCoy’s Real Estate and the ranching operation. Brian and his family, including daughter Meagan who has joined the company full-time, have primary responsibility for the retail business. His sister Brenda and her husband Kaare Remme are responsible for the ranching enterprise and brother Mike is involved with the real estate entities. “Whether it was a sale or gifting or whatever, we got all that down to the next generation,” he says with a bit of a relieved sigh. Brian and his wife Wetonnah are new grandparents this year, thanks to their son Reid and daughter-in-law Katherine. “The generations are coming!” he says with clear delight. He adds, “We are corny enough to say, ‘I want to be a good caretaker of all this and pass it on.’ To be a part of that and to be part of people’s homes, ranches and farms is special for McCoy’s.” ■