Showroom Gives Building Supply Firm Competitive Edge

Homeowners looking for a carpet can go to a carpet showroom and those in the market for a new bathroom or kitchen can go to a design showroom. So it was pretty clear to Hector Galvan that those who supply masonry and stone for yards and patios were missing the boat there were virtually no showrooms for anyone who wants to see how a finished back yard might look. So after about a year of planning and another six months of building, Galvan, the president of Prime Building Supplies, opened just such an establishment in North Hollywood last month. About 500 products are on display in the 5,000-square-foot building, 147 of them, installed and neatly numbered on the floor, show exactly how natural stone or beach pebbles, for instance, might look on a patio or walkway. The walls are lined with synthetic stone used for home facades. There is a fireplace, a fountain, a barbecue and even a pizza oven decked out to show homeowners how their own space be designed, and Galvan has added homey touches, like ceramic parrots that hang from the ceiling. “When people come in they can touch and feel and see how it’s going to look,” Galvan said. Galvan, who bought the building about a year ago for $1.1 million and gutted and renovated it from top to bottom since then, had been waiting for just such an opportunity for some time. He had been selling the stone and masonry used in landscape architecture and home design from his two building supply yards in Oxnard and North Hollywood, but the space just wasn’t conducive to higher-end products or, for that matter, to a lot of the decision-makers in the sale. “You used to go to a masonry supplies yard and you’d be walking around this dirty, hot, dusty yard with your clients with heavy equipment rolling by and that can be a real turnoff,” said John Tikotsky, owner of Tikotsky & Associates Landscape Architects in West L.A.and president of the Southern California chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects who assisted Galvan with the design of the showroom. “Here we have a very comfortable environment with all these great materials to choose from.” Plasma screens The showroom, which has a Starbucks coffee machine and plasma screens that play videos from many of the vendors represented, gives customers and designers the opportunity to leisurely browse through the offerings. “It shows you ways that you can take material and use it in ways that you might not have thought of,” Tikotsky said. “The other thing is he brought in quality local craftsmen to build different types of amenities that designers and homeowners alike can be inspired by and integrate into the overall design.” Galvan, who said sales have increased 25 percent in the month or so since the showroom opened, noted that walk-through traffic has also picked up considerably. But the showroom is about more than numbers. It affords Prime some important competitive advantages as well. For one thing, high-end suppliers, who once shunned an account like Prime because they did not think the building supplies yard would show off their products in the best light, now are anxious for Prime to carry their wares. “What’s nice is the vendors are fighting for wall space,” Galvan said. The assortment, including a large number of high-end materials, also helps Prime to compete against retailers like Home Depot and Lowe’s, who have been elbowing out independent retailers. With his new showroom, Galvan can offer products to more affluent customers that are not carried at the big box retailers. “We’re never going to be a Home Depot or Lowe’s,” said Galvan. “But this was to maneuver around them.” An average house may have tile or brick for $2 a square foot, the type that is commonly sold at the big box stores. But at Prime’s stone showroom, many of the items sell in the range of $250 to $750 a square foot, a market that big retail competitors ignore. Different mix With that type of upper-end selection, a sales staff that includes some experienced in installing these products and an environment that invites browsing, Galvan also hopes to shift the mix of his customers. At the yard, about 75 percent of Prime’s masonry and stone customers were contractors, but at the showroom, Galvan hopes to attract a larger percentage of landscape architects and designers. That means that each sale will be bigger. “The average homeowner spends about $2,500,” Galvan said. “With an architect, it can be $30,000.” So far, Galvan’s plan seems to be working. The other day, singer and songwriter Sheryl Crow showed up with her designer to select stone for her Malibu home. And Prime has picked up commercial business from architects building new locations for Kohl’s and Olive Garden. “By year end, 15 percent of our business will be commercial,” Galvan said. But mostly, the store is the culmination of a dream Galvan has nursed since he opened Prime Building Supplies 11 years ago. “This is really my proudest, because it’s really separated me from everybody else,” he said.