Janiks find ‘right person’ to buy Neuens Lumber

When the Janik family decided it was time to sell the family business, Neuens Fredonia Lumber, it didn’t have to look far to find a buyer.

Joel Nyhof, owner of Nyhof Custom Gutters, Windows and Siding and United Building Supply, both in Oostburg, purchased Neuens on Sept. 11.

The sale took some time but was worth it, David Janik said.

“We (he and his brother Chris) were waiting for the right person to come along and they did,” Janik said. “There is no doubt in my mind Joel Nyhof is the person to take Neuens lumber to the next level.

“The changes that are taking place are all positive. The team is very upbeat and positive. We’re just looking forward to knowing Joel for a long, long time and seeing him bring great success to the business.”

Nyhof said he sees Neuens as an opportunity to not only grow his existing businesses but also expand into a new community with a known product.

“We feel having Neuens Lumber join our family will benefit all our customers by providing a greater product selection, more inventory, faster product delivery and, as always, superior service,” he told customers in a Sept. 30 letter announcing the acquisition.

“Each location has its strengths, and by combining the resources we will offer both sides the ability to serve our customers even better.”

But, he added, he’s committed to maintaining Neuens and his other businesses as small, family-owned companies.

“We’re a small, family-owned company and we want to keep this a family-owned business with a small-town feeling,” Nyhof said. “We’re going to put a lot of emphasis on service to our customers.”

What it comes down to, he said, is having the right people in place. He believes he has that, noting the existing employees at Neuens are staying on — including Janik, who will remain on staff for another month or so, and Janik’s brother Chris, who will continue to work at the business for a few more weeks. Both are retiring, he said.

Chris’ wife Laurie, who had done accounts payable and receivable for Neuens, has already retired but will continue to help out on an as-needed basis.

With Neuens, he said, he plans initially to focus on the hardware store.

“It’s one of the only places in the area where you can get these things,” he said, noting the closest hardware stores otherwise are in Port Washington, West Bend and Sheboygan.

“For the community, we want to have available the products they need quickly — if you’re doing a project and need a part or you’ve already run to the store and you got something but it’s the wrong size screw.”

The store is a Do It Best hardware store, Nyhof said, and they will be reorganizing it to make it easier for people to find what they’re looking for.

They will be running clearance sales on products “that have been sitting on the shelves for a long time” and bringing in new items, Nyhof said.

He also plans to give the building a facelift to “give the place a little more curb appeal” and expand the facility as well.

Nyhof only purchased the buildings on the south side of Fredonia Avenue — the original lumberyard and retail store — not the former foundry building on the north side of the street, which is largely used for storage right now.

“There’s a lot of lumber there, windows and doors,” he said, adding he is currently renting that structure.

To consolidate operations on the south side of the street, something that will increase efficiency, requires a building addition, Nyhof said.

“Throughout this next year, we want to make the transition (to one site),” he said.

Nyhof is no stranger to the building industry. His father Dan started Nyhof Custom Gutter, Windows and Siding in 1972, and he joined the company in 1984 when he graduated from high school.

“I started out on the bottom, working on a gutter crew,” he said. He worked in all areas of the business, including window and siding installation and sales.

He later joined United Building Supply, which his dad started in 1987, gaining experience along the way.

Nyhof Custom Gutters installs gutters, windows and siding on houses, while United Building Supply is a full-service building material supplier. The primary customers for both businesses are contractors, he noted.

In 2019, his father retired and Nyhof bought the businesses.

“When I took over, we had about 15 employees. We’ve been growing,” he said, to about 21 employees.

With the acquisition of Neuens, he said, the company has about 33 workers.

Nyhof said he has someone who looks for business investment opportunities for him, and last year he saw an advertisement for Neuens.

“He jokingly said to me, ‘I don’t know if I should show this to you,’” Nyhof said. “He knew it was an interesting thing.”

Nyhof said he called Janik last May and they began to talk about the possibilities. He toured the property, looked at the operations and both he and the Janiks took  time to consider if it was really what they wanted to do.

By the end of 2022, they started talking again, and they reached a tentative agreement in February. They tweaked the agreement throughout the year, and on Sept. 11 Nyhof bought the business, taking over operations the following day.

Neuens has been an important part of Fredonia’s fabric since the lumberyard began in the late 1800s, Janik said. It’s been known as Neuens since 1907, when Emil Neuens bought it, and has catered to the needs of not just contractors but area farmers and local homeowners

Now Janik, who started working at Neuens in high school, and his brother are looking forward to retirement.

“One of the terrible things I have seen is guys who stay in their business too long,” Janik said. “Many of those family-owned lumberyards just close then. That would be sad.

“We don’t want to wait until it’s too late. We wanted to take the time and do the right thing.”

And that, he said, was selling to Nyhof and retaining the business that has meant so much to his family and the community they serve for so long.