“We’ve been holding the celebration events at each of our locations to be able to honor all our customers, our team, our retirees in those communities. They are the reason we’re here, so it’s important to us to recognize that and celebrate it,” Chief Operating Officer Carol Quandt said.

Quandt is the fourth-generation of her family in the business. Her brother, David, is the manager of the Escanaba store and her father, Steve, is also still involved in the business.

“My brother and I came to work with my dad, so we got to see what was going on in the business,” she said. She has been back with the company for 14 years.

In honor of their Aug. 22 birthday, the company released a video on its webpage that explains the history of the business and changes that have taken place through the years.

The crowd enjoys the weather during the 41 Lumber open house Thursday in Quinnesec. The company is marking 100 years in business. (Marguerite Lanthier/Daily News photo)

“That was something that we watched with our team and stakeholders first, then it was released for everyone,” said Tonia Swanson, marketing manager. The video was created by Mountain Media House.

“We wanted to create it to mark the moment, remember the history of how we got here and who helped us to get here. It’s important to us — what we do next to help the customer. It’s always about what are we doing to do next to help the customer on their next project,” Quandt said.

In 1925, Howard A Hamar and Albert W. Quandt purchased the Pryor Lumber Company in Houghton and operated it as the Hamar Quandt Company. Four years later, they opened a yard in Laurium and in Ontonogon.

In 1975, they opened a store in Marquette and changed the name to 41 Lumber as a way to distinguish themselves from other lumber companies. It later became the name of all their stores.

The company headquarters was moved to Quinnesec in 1980 and a lumber yard and distribution center was built. They are in the end stages of a remodel of the store that doubled the showroom space to 6,000 square feet. They continue to increase their offerings and displays.

“The company has built a reputation on quality and customer service,” store manager Craig Buckman said. “That’s something that they hang their hat on and should be very proud of.” He has been with the company for 31 years.

They are embracing changes in products and in technology, such as virtual reality that allows customers to move about a virtually created house. This saves money on change orders because the customer can make a change before any work has been done.

They also offer Milwaukee Tools.

“We do a lot of training for our people to better understand the products. Being better able to understand the products makes them able to sell the products more confidently. We don’t just want to sell it, we want to actually develop friendship with the customers too. We love to see the end result of the product and for them to be happy when it’s done,” Buckman said.

“Customer service is important, and quality of what we have in our store,” Swanson said. “They’ve tried the product themselves. They know the product.”

The store in Quinnesec is open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to noon Saturday. The distribution center is open 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Hours at the design center, which opened in 2021 in downtown Iron Mountain, are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

They have stores in six locations: Escanaba, Houghton, Laurium, Marquette, Munising and Quinnesec.

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Marguerite Lanthier can be reached at 906-774-3500, ext. 85242, or mlanthier@ironmountaindailynews.com.