L-R: Stephanie and Mark Riggin and their Labrador named Belle.

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“This yard began as Stripling Blake Lumber Co.,” Riggin said.  “The original Stripling Blake Lumber was next door in a small building.

“When the Stripling Blake Lumber opened the yard in Austin in 1970, my father Forrest Wilson and his partner bought this branch.”

Riggin says her husband went to work for the company 31 years ago and soon after she joined the company.

“Wilson Riggin Lumber and Building Headquarters has been in my family for 41 years,” she said.  “My father is retired, so my husband Mark and I run the store now.  We just did a major expansion at the front of the store.  Now we have 3,500sf of extra space for hardware.

“It was a really exciting project for us.  My brother Steve Wilson was the architect.”

According to Riggin, every year the company participates in the town festival called the Chisholm Trail Roundup.

“We build a huge, elaborate float for the parade at our yard,” she said.  “Our floats have won grand prize for the past 20 years in a row.  One year, we had a Peter Pan themed float with a giant pirate ship.  It takes about two and a half days to build the float.

“Employees who worked with us in high school and college come back every year during the second weekend of June to help us.  Their kids also help.  This is our big reunion.  It is a labor of love.  We have a construction crew and creative crew.  It is always a lot of fun.”

On the side, Riggin says she and her husband race four wheel drive drag trucks.

“Before that I was a professional skydiver for 12 years,” she said.  “I was on the road as a air show performer doing stunt skydiving.  Mark finally got me to quit jumping out of airplanes and now I race drag trucks with him almost every  weekend.”

Riggin says the keys to staying in business more than four decades is to be honest, know your products and know your customers.

“We are excited that there is always changes coming,” she said.  “Sometimes they are good, sometimes they are not.  You just have to hold on!

“There is a circle.  If you take care of your customers, your customers take care of you.  If you take care of your community, your community takes care of you.”

Wilson Riggin Lumber and Building Headquarters is a hardware and lumber company.  –ab

©2011 Construction News, Ltd.