One of the challenges Kelly Bros. faced in the early days was that of becoming a retail dealer recognized by the Lumber & Millwork Association of Greater Cincinnati, the organization that controlled the retail window, door and millwork business.
Sometime around 1950, Ken says, he went to association secretary-treasurer Ross Kuhlman and “explained that we had bought the Neeley Brothers distribution yard and that we were going to be retail lumber dealers. And after some questioning of what we intended to do and how we intended to operate, he agreed to have a committee come here and investigate and see if we could be legitimate dealers.”
In due time, the Kelly Bros. application was approved. Getting into the hard materials business was a somewhat different process.Kelly Bros. wanted to sell hard materials (like cement, steel, concrete blocks, bricks and plaster) as well as lumber. But, say the Kelly’s, the hard material dealers had a closed organization. So the Kelly’s tried the back door. “We kept edging into the hard material market, edging into it,” says Ed, “and we were always friendly with all our competitors and the hard material suppliers.”
