Regional dealer seeks international growth - Brief Article

Home Channel News, Feb 5, 2001 by Scott Larson

COMPANY: Tualatin Valley Builders Supply

HEADQUARTERS: Lake Oswego, Ore.

ANNUAL SALES: $125 million

CUSTOMER MIX: 89 percent pro

UNITS: 12

Faced with an economic slowdown at home, Tualatin Valley Builders Supply has entered into a strategic alliance with an international financier in the hopes of growing its offshore business.

The partnership teams TVBS -- which operates a handful of contractor-oriented lumberyards and truss and wall panel plants as well as eight Do it Best Project Centers in the greater Portland, Ore.-Vancouver, Wash., area -- with Regal Trust, a multibillion-dollar investment firm that is active in housing development projects around the world. Regal also has timber holdings and rights throughout Latin America.

"With the Northwest housing market projected to have little or flat growth the next couple of years, we must look to foreign markets to help increase our sales," says Mike Hillier, TVBS president and CEO. "Regal brings a knowledge of governments and leaders, the type of knowledge you need to cut through the red tape."

The deal calls for TVBS to supply products, including wall systems and roof and floor trusses that it produces, and in some cases on-site supervision, to projects being financed by Regal. Currently, the partnership is working on a contract to supply building materials for two government-financed projects in Latin America. On the horizon are other deals in China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Argentina.

Total revenues from those projects are in the "multimillion-dollar range," according to Hillier.

TVBS is no newcomer to international sales, or working with Regal. In 1993 the dealer launched a subsidiary business, TVBS Worldwide, through which it shipped housing packages primarily to Japan and Korea.

"We've been involved [with Regal] for quite some time, either through projects they've invested in or financed," Hillier says. The two companies had been talking about expanding and formalizing their partnership for "the better part of a year," he adds.

As part of the alliance, Regal Trust administrator Donald Moody has been appointed to TVBS' board of directors.