Fisher Lumber marks 60 years as a family business

Joe Fisher was going through some old papers when he found a check for the $2,000 down payment his father made on Fisher Lumber 60 years ago.

He noted the date – March 15, 1955 – was 54 years prior to the day Vince Fisher died.

“I think it’s a sign,” he said.

The business is now in the hands of Joe and his brother, Jack.

They said they have kept the business going by treating employees like family – which they often are – emphasizing customer service and adding product lines as needed.

Both tan, lean and usually dressed in jeans, the brothers split their duties according to their strengths: Jack deals with products and building contractors, the business’ main customers; Joe handles finances and operations.

“We don’t go much on titles here,” said Joe, the company president. “We both know what we need to do.”

Fisher Lumber moved to its current location from the south side of Garden Plain in the 1970s. Back then, Fisher made feed bunks and pig huts and stacked them outside for farmers to peruse.

Today the business is almost solely dependent on home construction and remodeling. After expansion, the site here includes 41,600 square feet of warehouse space and lumber sheds, a 12,000-square-foot assembly shop and trim building, a 4,200-square-foot custom wood shop and 6,000-square-foot retail hardware store.

Jack and Joe both worked for the family business growing up. Jack played football at Wichita State University; he was a freshman and not traveling with the team when its plane went down in Colorado in 1970, killing 31 aboard. Joe attended college “for about five weeks before I decided to come back here and ask my dad for a job.”

Family members working at Fisher include Joe’s wife, Stacey, and their sons Kendall and Derek; Jack’s daughter, Kelli; a brother-in-law, George Meyer; and B.J. Fisher, the son of the Fishers’ first cousin. The average experience of the 42 employees is 19 years, making many of them as familiar as family.

Today, about 60 percent of Fisher’s business consists of interior trim, cabinets and counter tops.

“At any one time we’ll have over a million linear feet of molding” on the premises, Joe said.

Fisher started emphasizing molding in the early 1980s, when Jack found some unique designs being produced by an Arkansas supplier. The brothers added cabinets in the early 1990s. Later, they began carrying and installing fireplaces and counter tops.

Jack said Fisher’s product lines expanded because “we were constantly asked.”

“People would say, ‘It’s really neat that you sell cabinets. Why not counter tops?’”

Fisher has tried to keep up with technology, too, using laser-guided templates to produce counter tops that fit homes “like a glove,” according to Jeff Turner, who manages the Andale location.

“We invest quite a bit into technology,” he said. “If you don’t, somebody else will.”

In 2007, the Fishers opened the 12,000-square-foot Gallery Expressions showroom on Wichita’s west side to showcase kitchen and bath design, counter tops, fireplaces and wood stoves.

“When we opened the doors to the public, housing went off the cliff,” Joe said, referring to the housing downturn. “We are very grateful we were able to make it.”

Joe said one trade publication estimates that a third of all family-owned lumberyards didn’t make it through the recession.

Two years ago, the Fishers bought Andale Lumber from its founder, Pat Reichenberger; he now works for Fisher along with his two sons. The Andale Fishers has a 4,800-square-foot retail hardware store and 52,000 square feet of warehouse and lumber storage sheds.

“I think I can quote Pat as saying he did not want to sell to anybody else because he knew bringing the two yards together would be a great thing,” Jack said.

The purchase shortened by a few miles the distance Fisher Lumber trucks must travel. The Andale yard now sends lumber and other goods to Hutchinson and points north, while the Garden Plain location serves Wichita and points south.

Despite its location in western Sedgwick County, Fisher does 95 percent of its business in metro Wichita.

“If we didn’t have contractors in Andover, Derby and Wichita, we wouldn’t be here,” Joe Fisher said. “Our salespeople build true relationships with our customers.”

To mark the 60th anniversary, the Fishers are planning a golf outing and barbecue for contractors, and a hot dog feed at all three locations for the general public.

They say they’ll keep following their father’s advice.

“He said you can do all the advertising you want,” Joe said, “but if you don’t take care of customers when they walk in that door, it’s not going to make any difference.”

This story was originally published April 1, 2015 at 4:54 PM with the headline "Fisher Lumber marks 60 years as a family business."