He could place an order on a Friday afternoon and be guaranteed delivery Monday. It could take bigger stores until Thursday to deliver the order, he says.

Arndt has come to expect that kind of personal service from the family-run Fitch Lumber on North Greensboro Street.

The company has been in the Fitch family since 1907 and is thought to be the oldest business in Orange County.

It will celebrate its 100th birthday on Saturday.

The Carrboro store across from Harris Teeter looks a little like a log cabin. Inside, the smells of sawdust and paint thinner mix beneath the dark, aged wooden beams and columns.

With national competitors like Home Depot, Lowe's and Stock Building Supply, Fitch Lumber Co.'s owner say they owe their success to an old-fashioned value: loyalty.


All in the family

Fitch Lumber, started in Mebane in 1907 by A.B. Fitch, is now run by his grandchildren Mac Fitch and Carol Fitch Walker. Two of Mac Fitch's sons, David and Brad, also help with operations. Aaron Nelson, president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce, doesn't know of any other locally owned business that's been continually operated under the same name for that long. Sutton's Drug Store has been around since the 1920s or '30s, he said. A few other locally owned businesses, like Julian's, are in their '60s.

In 1923, Fitch Lumber put a delivery station in Carrboro. In 1945, a fire destroyed the Mebane store, and the business moved entirely to Carrboro.

Mac Fitch's cousin, R.B. Fitch, eventually joined Mac's father, Miles, and uncle Bernice -- R.B.'s father -- in running the company. In the early '60s, R.B. Fitch started his own design company called Fitch Creations, and in the late '80s Mac Fitch became president of Fitch Lumber.

Mac Fitch remembers starting to work in the store at 10 years old, sweeping out a few warehouses. Each summer during high school, he drove trucks to deliver supplies, haul lumber and load and unload materials.


Lumber loyalty

Arndt, a local developer who runs James Arndt Builders, began buying from Fitch Lumber in 1982 and hasn't gone anywhere else for his main supplies since.

He's loyal to Fitch Lumber because he has developed a relationship with the family and the employees. It's not just the quality of the products, Arndt says, but the quality of the people, too.

"They really take care of their builders," he said. "If I were to call them right now and tell them I need more supplies, they would figure out a way to get them to me. Their response to their building community is incredible."

That's what has kept Arndt from going anywhere else.

"Home Depot and Lowe's are cheaper dollar for dollar, but Fitch has much better value. Their materials are higher quality," he said. And they will deliver supplies more quickly, he said. The privately owned company won't release sales figures.

In order for small, locally owned lumber businesses to survive and thrive, however, they needs to have three qualities, said Mark Palmer, executive director of the North American Wholesale Lumber Association.

The small companies have to find their niche, for example, carrying exotic lumber that the big boxes don't stock. They also have to offer higher quality materials and offer more personalized service.

Being local is another reason some choose Fitch Lumber.

"In general, the businesses that have the most positive impact on the local economy are locally owned and operated," the chamber's Nelson said. "They are almost exclusively reinvesting their resources locally. Profits are reinvested in the business, in employees, in our community." Doing so, they also have a positive impact on the community, he said.

"I think we should be real proud of an organization ... like Fitch Lumber, that has stood the test of time."