Requarth Lumber Company, one of the oldest businesses in Dayton, is now under new ownership.
The company has been owned by five generations within the Requarth family for 165 years.
Its rich history includes sales of lumber to the Wright brothers, and surviving the 1913 flood as well as two world wars and the Great Depression.
Keep up with all WYSO's local coverage and sign up for our morning newsletter.
The company sells lumber to customers often in the construction industry.
The Schockman Lumber Group acquired the company earlier this month. The value of the sale has not been made public. Alan Pippenger, former president of Requarth, said they weren’t looking to sell the company at first.
“The business is healthy, prospects are good, (and has) a strong management team in place,” Pippenger said. “But when we were approached by the Schockman Lumber Group and the Bruns family about selling, it just seemed to present some real opportunities for our business to continue, primarily because of their size.”
On top of owning nine other lumber yards, the Schockman Lumber Group also operates a truss manufacturing plant and a building materials company; something the Requarth family had to carefully consider as a single location lumber yard and company, Pippenger said.
The Requarth family will continue to own the building and lumber yard on Monument Avenue, but they will be leasing it to Schockman for the group’s lumber operations.
The name of the business downtown will be unchanged, Pippenger said.
Members of the fourth, fifth and sixth generations will continue to hold shares in the company, he said.
