Every small town in America has seen their local business community pitted in an unfair battle against larger, better-funded national competitors. It's getting harder by the day to find a drug store owned by a member of the local community and finding a locally owned and operated restaurant is more challenging than finding a mashed potato recipe that doesn't begin, "First, place the potato powder in a mixing bowl..." This trend is becoming a way of life and has now turned its attention on our local homebuilding industry. Fortunately, the building industry is not going to succumb gracefully. Through the efforts of partners Dan Kerr and Chris Tsonton, Builders Profit Alliance was founded in 2004 to help enable our small and medium-sized homebuilders remain competitive with the large national builders. We stopped by Builders Profit Alliance recently and listened as Dan explained how BPA helps level the playing for our local builders;

Builders Profit Alliance is a buying cooperative that combines our members' aggregate volume in raw materials such as lumber, roofing materials, appliances, and flooring, and negotiates rebate programs for the builders with their local suppliers. By using the leverage provided by their pooled purchases, our local builders can purchase raw materials at costs similar to those paid by the large, national building companies.

In the building industry, large national players continue to get bigger and bigger while swallowing up small community businesses. The smaller builders are trying to compete the best they can with the larger builders, but the cost variance of materials between the two groups makes is very difficult. As we've seen in other industries, the national companies take over and drive the small companies out of business. If this happens to the building industry, before long you'll have a hard time finding a local, custom builder to build your dream home. With Builders Profit Alliance, the smaller builders see immediate reduction in the cost of materials which reduces the final building costs on each of their projects while improving their profitability. Our goal is to enable the local builders to stand their ground, remain competitive and profitable, and to continue to support the local community.

Chris and I have a symbiotic relationship that combines our previous backgrounds. My previous experience includes building this same type of cooperative in another market and Chris is the owner of Pepperwood Home Builders and a second generation homebuilder. When we blend my knowledge of building co-ops with Chris' understanding of the difficulty faced by local builders trying to remain profitable while doing quality work, the end result is a network of approved suppliers to meet our members' needs for the purchasing of materials, supplies, and services in the building industry.

Builders Profit Alliance is working hard to ensure our local builders remain competitive in this changing market. Call Builders Profit Alliance today and don't forget to tell them that The Advocate sent you!

Republication or redistribution of any content from this web site by any and all methods is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of CX Publishing. Business listings contained herein have been pre-approved for publication by the individual business' legal representatives as advertisements, and CX Publishing encourages readers to perform their due diligence before entering into an agreement with any company or individual. Furthermore, CX Publishing shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the published content, nor for any actions taken in reliance thereon.