When Austin Builders Supply opened in 1988, Austin was a little different. There were three lumber yards in town and the railroad company owned much of the land the business sits upon.

Thirty years later, Austin Builders Supply has grown, thanks to a loyal customer following for the family-owned business.

According to co-owner Julie Hackensmith, it all started with an idea from her father, Kenneth Retterath, to purchase the property on 10th Street Northeast from former owner Fay Rayman.

“At the time, Fay Rayman wanted to sell and my father, who was in construction at the time, was interested in purchasing the business in hopes that myself and my husband (Steve) would move back from Wyoming,” she said. “My brother (Russell Retterath), who is also an owner, owns Adams Building Supply. My dad felt with the two lumberyards family-owned, we could pull truckloads together to help us grow as a new business. It would be an easier opportunity to help each other out as we’re starting out, because starting is kind of hard financially.”

A little time and several phone calls later, they all decided to go in together and jointly purchase the business from Rayman. The next step was building a customer base.

“In the early years, there were three lumber yards in town,” Hackensmith said. “We thought we would keep plucking away and do our best and help the customers the best we can. We tried to get the products they needed and we listened to our customers about what they wanted and needed. My dad was always positive and encouraging. He never wavered as far as thinking that we weren’t going to be successful.”

But with the growing business came the need to expand. In 1994, the family purchased the land from the railroad company and started to build.

“We started pouring concrete around the whole exterior,” Hackensmith said. “We enlarged the office area and enclosed some of the lumberyard area to make more space for the hardware showroom. We added the backroom facility for checking in hardware and just this last fall and spring, we added another building to accommodate doors and windows. This last winter we gutted our office and remodeled that to accommodate my daughter-in-law joining the business.”

Hackensmith said that weather has played a role in their growth, such as when a windstorm blew one of the old buildings off its foundation, prompting them to build a steel building in its place.

Hackensmith owes their success to their customers and employees.

“Over the course of our 30 years, we’ve had some really good employees,” she said. “They’ve stuck with us and we hope they’ve learned a lot from us for their own experience. We’re always happy to see (the customers). We get to joke and have fun with them on a daily basis and we really appreciate that they want to shop locally. We see second-generation customers coming in. Their fathers came in and now their kids are coming in. That’s pretty fun for us. Products have changed; you have to keep up with the knowledge as far as what product doesn’t work anymore and what’s the new product. We have some really faithful customers who promote shopping in Austin, and we’re thankful for that.”

“We do truly want to thank everybody for supporting our family business,” she added.