Nelson-Young has served local builders for nearly a century
(Published Monday, July 30, 2007 12:17:55 PM CST)
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
By Stacy Vogel Gazette staff
EDGERTON-Much has changed since Tracy Nelson spent her weekends running around the Nelson-Young Lumber yard as her father and grandfather unloaded wood.
The lumber is unloaded by machine now, for one thing. Big-box home improvement stores, such as Home Depot and Menards, have sprung up like weeds around the country. And little Tracy Nelson has married and become Tracy Tronnes. Now she co-owns and helps run the business, instead of getting underfoot.
But nothing has changed about Nelson-Young's business philosophy, she said.
"It's a local company, and if there's a problem with the product, we can usually get results quickly," she said. "We have quite a wealth of building knowledge in our staff, and I think that helps with customer loyalty."
Nelson-Young employees work to load a section of lumber in one of the company’s Edgerton warehouses.
Kyle Stevens/Gazette Staff
The company does very little advertising, Tronnes said. It doesn't have to. It's been around since 1913, and local builders know its reputation for service.
Back then, the company was called Shaller-Young, and Tronnes' great-grandfather, Fred Young, was part owner. Eventually her grandfather, Robert Nelson, bought out the other partner.
Today, Tronnes owns the company with her father and brother. It has expanded from its Edgerton location to sites in Evansville and Deerfield and includes a door and window shop and a truss plant, where employees create frames for roofs.
Gordi Rusch, a mill warehouse supervisor at Nelson-Young Lumber in Edgerton, loads doors onto a waiting truck. The company's business philosophy that's centered on customer service has served it and local builders well since 1913.
Kyle Stevens/Gazette Staff
Nelson-Young has a different customer base than the big-box stores, focusing on local custom home builders, Tronnes said.
Jim Wersal, co-owner of Fairway Builders in Janesville, has been a customer for eight years.
"It probably starts out with the service," he said. "You work with the same people all the time and they know what you expect from them, lumber-wise and quality of the lumber, stuff like that.
"I wouldn't take a lumber list to Menards. I don't believe they have exactly what we're looking for."
Because of the company's loyal customers, Tronnes isn't worried about the slumping housing market, she said.
"You deal with the cyclical nature of the market," she said. "You just watch your costs and try to get through it."
