By: Tom Locke, Denver Business Journal
Feb 8, 2004, 10:00pm MST UPDATED: Feb 5, 2004, 10:19am MST
Tuff Shed Inc., a Denver-based maker of sheds, garages and carports, has acquired a competitor, Dallas-based Wood Master Building Co. Inc., as part of its efforts to become a nationwide supplier.
The combination of the two privately held companies fits into a plan for a nationwide rollout of private-label sheds by The Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD), which has been talking about making that move for more than a year, said Wood Master CEO Bryan Johnson.
Home Depot “asked us to go across the whole nation a year and a half ago,” Johnson said. “We just didn’t have the capability to go across the whole nation.”
But he thinks the combined company can do just that. “They’re talking about in the next 12 months coming out with that label,” he said of Home Depot, though adding, “It could be as long as a year and a half.”
The combination with Tuff Shed will change the landscape for the storage-building industry across the United States, Johnson said.
Both companies declined to reveal the purchase price in the deal, which was expected to close Feb. 5, but Tuff Shed President, CEO and 100 percent owner Tom Saurey said it will help catapult Tuff Shed to $130 million in revenue in 2004 and $150 million in 2005.
That would be almost a doubling in two years, since Tuff Shed posted $80 million in revenue in 2003, up from $65 million in 2002. Wood Master posted $26 million in revenue in 2003, up from about $16 million in 2002.
The acquisition already has meant some new Colorado jobs for Tuff Shed, which has added 15 administrative people at its Denver headquarters since the first of the year in anticipation of the deal, which it has been working on since last summer.