New Klein (merchant feature)

New Klein Lumber relies on an old formula for success: Quality product plus quality service.
It must work. Business has been steady at New Klein even as the economy has slowed.
“We’ve had several houses we’ve furnished materials for this year, plus agricultural additions and room additions and remodels,” said co-owner Steve Eisenbart.
Eisenbart, with his brother Bill, bought the business when their father, Norb, retired in 1998. Norb, in turn, had purchased Klein Lumber in 1989 from the grandson of Paul Klein, who started the company in 1903.
“There’s been a lumber yard on this corner since about 1896 — before Klein,” Eisenbart said of the company’s history.
Outstanding service has always been a part of the business there as well, Eisenbart said.
That’s paramount because “all the other lumber mills have basically the same product,” Eisenbart said. “All I can offer is service.”
Eisenbart said he and his staff try to be “as knowledgeable about as much product as we can be.”
Eisenbart noted that once, he called a supplier who knew less about their product than he did.
“The guy said, ‘That’s not my department.’ Yet I knew every product in that catalogue.”
That thorough knowledge of choices in paint, plumbing parts, siding and the like allows customers to come in and get advice along with their purchase.
New Klein offers name brands such as DeWALT power tools, Valspar and Laura Ashley paints and James Hardie siding — a cement and wood fiber siding that lasts longer than traditional siding, Eisenbart said.
“The product itself has a 50-year warranty on it.”
The business also carries Owens Corning insulation and Tamko shingles in Heritage shake and Elite 3-tab styles.
They also offer roofing supplies, interior remodeling and building supplies, lumber, a full range of plumbing supplies and sump pumps and builder’s hardware, including all the bolts and nuts a person could want.
In addition, Eisenbart said, “I keep up with the current regulations regarding lead-based paint removal and building codes.” That knowledge, too, is shared with customers who need it.
And as long as customers come, Eisenbart plans to be there to serve them.
“I anticipate we’ll be here for a while,” Eisenbart said.
“The economy seems to be better in smaller communities. People in rural America are a little more cautious (in their business dealings) than the big cities,” Eisenbart noted. They also tend to support their own.
That has allowed New Klein to plug on.
“We have customers who are pretty faithful to us,” he said.
They also have some long-term employees. Bill Eisenbart has been with New Klein since 1989. Steve, since 1994. Angie Whitney, who works at the front desk, has been there 11 years, Eisenbart said. Jack Dawson and Adam Eisenbart work in the lumberyard.
New Klein Lumber, at 201 W. Madison Ave. in Iola is available to serve you from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 7 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. You can also reach them at 365-2201.

7/21/10