NVO Construction Chief Executive Officer Cheryl Lewis and Andrew Cross, president of Truckee-Tahoe Lumber Co. and Design Center.
Andrew Cross began working at Truckee-Tahoe Lumber Co. and Design Center back in 2006 as a yard laborer.
A few short years (and one giant national recession) later, Cross would find himself at the helm of the company. His family roots run deep in the company which was purchased in part by his great-grandfather, Charlie, in 1933 then purchased by his grandfather in 1950 and run by his father, Breeze, from 1979 to 2011. Andrew Cross was promoted to president and chief executive officer of Truckee-Tahoe Lumber Co. in December 2011 and purchased the company with his brother, Ira, in 2012.
At that time, Cross said the company’s annual revenues were about $14 million. Today, Truckee-Tahoe Lumber Co.’s revenue exceeds $100 million. Part of the company’s strategic growth plan included acquisition of a truss manufacturing facility, and in early June, TTL announced it had acquired prefabricated structural building components manufacturer NVO Construction of Stead.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Cross said the acquisition of NVO Construction is a perfect fit for Truckee-Tahoe Lumber Co. The company will be rebranded as Truckee-Tahoe Lumber Co. Truss and Components Division.
“We have been doing some real in-depth strategic planning, and we saw room for an acquisition,” Cross said. “Trusses have always been on our radar as something we could do well, but the barriers to entry are so high. When the opportunity to purchase an already up and running (truss) company came up, we couldn’t let it pass us by.
“There’s no other line of manufacturing that uses the products Truckee-Tahoe Lumber Co. sells and has almost 100 percent of the same customers we already serve,” he added. “We will be able to provide integrated services to framing contractors that we couldn’t do as separate companies.”
NVO Construction Chief Executive Officer Cheryl Lewis, who founded the company in 2020, told NNBW that an acquisition was always the most likely outcome for NVO Construction.
“We knew that to really grow we were going to have to find the right partner, and honestly, there couldn’t be a better one than a 93-year-old local company that people trust and that's committed to this community,” Lewis said.
Small players across the lumber sales and truss manufacturing industries are being consolidated into larger entities, Lewis added. It was only a matter of time before NVO was a target.
“We were going to get eaten up by somebody,” she said, “but to be absorbed by a company as strong as Truckee-Tahoe Lumber Co. is amazing. They are building for Nevada, and that means a lot to us. Being part of an organization like TTL with its larger buying power will make us even more competitive. Being part of this team is critical for us.”
Lewis will stay on as chief operating office of Truckee-Tahoe Lumber Co. Truss and Components Division in Stead. NVO Construction has surrendered its contractors license, Lewis said, and TTL doesn’t do any installation. NVO will be dissolved and run as Truckee-Tahoe Lumber Co. Truss and Components Division.
“I’m looking forward to working with Andrew and his team to find new ways to build the company,” Lewis said. “He has a real vision for the future, and that’s why I am so excited about this acquisition – this is the kind of business we wanted to be a part of.”
Cross in 2023 relocated Truckee-Tahoe Lumber Co.’s headquarters to 300 E. Second St., where it employs an office staff of 20. He said the acquisition of a truss manufacturing facility complements TTL’s product offerings, especially since profit margins on wood sales are so thin.
“I feel like we have been selling the cake and giving it to someone else to put the icing on it,” Cross said. “Adding manufacturing creates some gross profit that’s different from selling commodities – there, I am completely volume-based on low margins. A manufactured product brings more value-added sales.”
Lewis concurred.
“The hardest thing to do in business is add more customers,” she said. “If you can get more business from the same customers, that’s the greatest way to grow a business.
“We had a pretty limited customer base,” Lewis added. “Now we have a whole team of salespeople that can sell the commodity with a value-add product on top of it. It’s a terrific growth strategy.”
Truckee-Tahoe Lumber Co. was founded in 1931 by E.T. Robie before the Cross family got involved in 1933. It was the main supplier of building materials for Olympic Village during the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley. TTL services Northern California customers from its lumber yards in Truckee and Tahoe City. The company’s flagship operation, however, is its 9.5-acre lumber yard on USA Parkway, which is the main distribution point for customers throughout Northern Nevada. The facility that opened in 2018 includes a rail spur and receives much of its raw materials from logging operations in southern Oregon, Cross said.
Truckee-Tahoe Lumber Co. also has a lumber yard off Hymer Avenue in Sparks and is in the process of building another lumber yard that should be up and running in the next 12 to 18 months, Cross noted. It also has a design center in Truckee for cabinetry, flooring, countertops, hardware and custom doors.
“Truckee-Tahoe Lumber Co. really just wants to service framers,” Cross said. “With the whole framing package available between the lumber yards and the production warehouse, we will make it easier for framers to move quickly from framing through rolling trusses.
“This acquisition is probably one of the most important things we will do in the next three years,” Cross added. “We may stub our toe a bit, but we will get stronger. In the next few years we will have it fully refined and perfectly humming, but it’s going to take the majority of our focus.”