Traverse City’s Brown Lumber is now Northern Building Supply – the second location for the company headquartered in Suttons Bay.

No jobs were lost in the acquisition that has been virtually seamless to customers, says Phil Cochran, the company’s chief operating officer. What is gone, though, is the 110-year-old name of the community’s independent lumber yard and building supply center.

“It’s sad to see it go, sure, because it’s nostalgic,” says Cochran. “But what’s happening now is going to make the business stronger. It already is.”

Northern Building Supply is led by president and CEO Ed Beuerle, whose family operated the former Northern Lumber in Suttons Bay since 1970; Beuerle purchased it from his father in 1997.

“It’s still a locally-owned company,” says Beuerle of Brown’s transition to Northern Building Supply. “And it’s the same people who have always worked here.”

Customers who have accounts with Brown learned of the company change via a letter sent with their monthly statement, says Cochran. The old Brown logo will start disappearing this week – with delivery trucks and signage on the building’s exterior sporting the new identity soon.

The actual switchover has been just that. “It was like we walked in one day and just flipped the switch,” Cochran says.

The lead-up, however, was a more complicated series of events – all precipitated by a crumbling economy in the late 2000s and severe hit to the building industry.

It was November 2011 when the leadership of Brown Lumber first approached Beuerle at then Northern Lumber with the idea of forming a partnership, says Cochran. Brown’s revenue had dropped 75 percent between 2005 and 2010 and more than 100 people had been laid off.

Then, in the fall of 2012, Chase Bank pulled out as Northern Lumber’s lender, Beuerle says. Following the bank’s decision, Cochran’s brother George – who two years previous had bought majority ownership of Brown – bought the debt from Chase, foreclosed on the company and formed Northern Building Supply, LLC to buy its assets. All Northern Lumber employees became employees of Northern Building Supply in November 2012 and Beuerle continued to lead it.

Shortly thereafter, with Brown Lumber in a “similar situation” with its bank, the process was initiated to bring Brown under Northern Building Supply ownership. It was official in late February.

What if this deal hadn’t come together? Both Northern Lumber and Brown Lumber would be out of business and 50 people would be out of a job, company leaders say.

Instead, business is back. “We’re looking forward to a great year,” says Beuerle, who adds that business is more than double what it was last year at this time, despite the weather.

George Cochran continues on as owner of Northern Building Supply. Joining Beuerle and Phil Cochran on the management team is CFO Tom Rochford.