Arrowhead Building Supply Celebrates One Year in Lowell

Arrowhead Building Supply Inc. hosted a weeklong one-year anniversary party for its Lowell store earlier this month, and there was plenty of reason to celebrate.

Arrowhead took ownership of its showroom and warehouse space on April 1, 2012, but didn’t have its grand opening for about seven weeks. That’s part of the reason the company, which has corporate headquarters in St. Peters, Mo., set a 10-month sales goal of $2.5 million for its Lowell store.

Branch manager J.D. Tanner said Arrowhead’s reception in Northwest Arkansas has been “huge,” evidenced by a sales total of about $3.5 million over that 10-month period. The goal for 2013, he added, is $6 million.

Arrowhead is an independent, family-owned and operated full-service exterior building supply company. It provides a wide range of materials — including roofing, siding, windows and doors, gutters, decks and outdoor living products — to residential and commercial contractors.

The company has four facilities in Missouri and one store each in Arkansas and Illinois. Its Lowell store employs 11, and serves customers in a 100-mile radius.

“The business was built on roofing … but it’s expanded to become full-service exterior design,” said Tanner, who has worked in the industry for 12 years, including five in Arkansas.

What’s been particularly profitable, Tanner said, is Arrowhead’s Outside Elegance line. Products range from designer shingles, shake siding and panelized stone to columns, pergolas and arbors.

“Anything outside to give the house that ‘wow’ factor,” Tanner said.

Arrowhead also emphasizes customer service, offering same-day on-roof delivery of shingles, on-site lockers for jobs involving windows and siding and such, and on-site recycling bins. The bins actually are Dumpsters that have been modified and made into trailer-type vehicles.

Tanner said 12 of the trailers currently are available, but that number should grow to more than 20 by year’s end. They are part of Arrowhead’s focus on saving its customers time.

“Time is money in this business,” Tanner said, “so we’re big on that.”