Davis Lumber Company

Davis Lumber Company was started in 1948 by the late Franklin Davis. He began in an old garage on East Street in Texarkana, with no actual inventory. He soon added his father, Floyd, and his brother, Carroll, to the company as the business started to grow beyond his own limitations.

In the early 1960's Davis Lumber Company added a roof truss manufacturing plant. It was the only one that existed between Dallas and Little Rock, Arkansas at that time. It was then called Home Components, and is now Davis Roof Truss Manufacturing Company. They manufactured roof trusses and premade wall framing sections for houses.

The 1970's were good economic times and the business continued to prosper and grow. In the early 1970's a new store was built and the Davis Lumber Company was moved to its current location facing Highway 71 South. In may of 1972, Franklin Davis died suddenly of a heart attack at the young age of 42. At that time, John Earnest, a partner with financial interests in the companies, took over as general manager for about one year until he bought out by the Davis family, Rodney Ellis, and Sam McJunkins. Rodney Ellis took over as general manager of the company in 1973, and continued in that position until his retirement in 1994. Under Ellis's management, the company grew into one of the top 250 lumber companies in sales volume in the United States.

In the spring of 1989, Davis Lumber company installed the Advantage System. The company had grown to a size that made it impossible, from a management standpoint, to accurately track the day-to-day movement of material and sales or control receivables in an efficient manner. They chose Advantage because the software was written exclusively for lumberyards and was very simple to use. The greatest benefit to them is "Inventory Control." At this point, they do not use the multi-store features to the fullest, but the parts they do use have helped them determine the needs of their three retail locations. Their centralized buying company, Wholesale Paneling, Inc., uses the inventory information to project their purchases of commodity items as well as seasonal items.