Manchester Life 2020 | Page 14

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