rk miles at 80!
Joe Miles in the Manchester store
distribution hub for local contractors
and construction businesses. Over
the years, the store has expanded
to meet the demands of a changing
economy and clientele. Current
president of the company, Joe Miles
says that when he first joined the
company in 1987, he saw that “there
was a good business opportunity in
the town of Manchester beyond the
dusty lumberyard. There was real
retail potential, and my dad [Richard
K. Miles Jr.] was on board with that
idea. We redid the store in 1990 and
gave it a much more retail-oriented
feel. That worked out pretty darn
well.”
Joe explains that the increase in
business they experienced after the
rebranding led to expansion into
new markets, which coincided with
the second home housing boom in
12 manchester life | manchesterlifemagazine.com
the early 2000s. New product lines
included doors, windows, and paint. expanded to Hatfield, Massachusetts,
and Stowe and Morrisville, Vermont.
After the housing boom peaked
in the mid-2000s, there was a
period of necessary reinvention
and restructuring for the company.
They re-assessed their locations and
distribution strategies. Joe says that
they “were often delivering goods as
far north as Burlington and as far
south as Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
It just didn’t make sense. There’s
the law of diminishing returns with
every mile traveled and it added up
pretty quickly.” The rk Miles empire is growing even
further this year. The company is
purchasing the Allen Lumber Com-
pany, another family-owned Vermont
business. The Allen Lumber Compa-
ny has four locations in the northern
end of the state and has been in
operation since 1888. Joe makes it
known that as a fellow small family
business owner, he “feels a lot of re-
sponsibility” in assuming ownership
of the company. He reports, “Things
are going great! We’re up there now
working through the changes and the
implementation. We’ve got a great
team on that, so it’s going well.”
In 2005, the Miles family decided to
open stores in Middlebury, Vermont
and in Williamstown, Massachusetts,
thereby shortening the delivery
distance between their shop locations
and clients. They have since
Joe feels that flexibility has been key
to the success of rk Miles. Constant
re-assessment is critical. Ultimately,
after expanding into other product