LaValley's buys Gilford Home Center

GILFORD — Gilford Home Center, which has been owned by the same family since the mid-1980s, has been sold to LaValley-Middleton Building Supply.

Larry Huot, president of LaValley Building Supply, the parent company of LaValley-Middleton, confirmed the sale in a telephone interview. He said the transaction was finalized Oct. 12.

Huot said the Gilford location will be the 14th retail store for LaValley Building Supply, which has storefronts throughout New Hampshire and Vermont, in addition to manufacturing facilities and a sawmill.

Huot said he heard Gilford Home Center was available, and he determined quickly it would be a good opportunity for LaValley, due to the type of business they've developed as a lumber yard and contractor supply company, its location in the region, and because of the way the Finethy family, which has run the business since 1986, did things.

"We're a people business, it just happens to be that we're in lumber and hardware," said Huot. With both LaValley and Gilford Home Center, he said, "it's people first — our customers, our employees."

Bill Finethy said the season had come for him to try to find the business's next owner. "I've been here for 37 years. I'm getting older, I didn't have anyone in my family that wanted to take it over," he explained.

The business's name will change to "LaValley's Gilford Building Supply," Huot said, but he expects customers won't notice many changes beyond that.

"Everyone will stay on board. It's a very good crew there, committed, talented people. They know what they're doing," Huot said. Finethy will continue to be part of the store's operations in contractor sales and estimating.

LaValley brings its greater purchasing power, and the ability to bring in a greater array of products and services, Huot said, though he said there aren't any immediate changes planned.

"They do some things really, really well. It's about learning what works well and keeping that in place, and what else we can bring in to the local people there," Huot said. "We like the community, and our operations are run with the face of local people. They have the pulse on what the neighboring clientele is looking for."

"Our ambition is to have a smooth transition so our customers don't notice that there's been any change," Huot said. "We're very excited and honored that Bill and Lisa [Finethy] chose us to carry on what they did a great job of starting."

Finethy said he had "quite a few" prospective buyers, and felt the offer from LaValley was "the best fit, the least amount of changes, the least amount of disruption to what we've built here at Gilford Home Center." Finethy said he wanted to "thank everyone for 37 years of supporting the Finethy family."

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Larry Huot's name.