Vision, Teamwork Turned Neu’s Building Center into Industry Leader

“At first, it was drudgery.”

If you ask Harvey Neu to reflect on his childhood and what it was like to become part of his father’s hardware and building supply business, don’t expect a warm, fuzzy answer. Frankly, it wasn’t a whole lot of fun.

“It was challenging because there were nine of us,” Neu said. “I was the last of nine children and I had six sisters and two brothers. It was expected that you were part of my father’s business. You were expected to go to work. You didn’t get involved in sports at school, you went to work. It was a small business at the time and he needed all the family members to kick in and help.”

In 1945, Harvey’s father, Roman Neu, acted on his business instincts. He decided to make the transition from builder to supplier, starting with a lumberyard and supplies, and calling his new enterprise Neu’s Supply Line.

Working long hours and making sure his entire family rolled up their sleeves to join him, Neu built the foundation for long term business success. When Roman Neu passed away in 1959, the management torch was passed to his son, Robert. At that time, the hardware store occupied 7,000 square feet and, under Robert’s guidance, it continued to grow substantially over the next decade.

Meanwhile, after graduating from in 1969, Harvey Neu just wanted to get away from the business altogether. He went off to college. Four years later, he graduated with a business degree and got married. He also discovered a new enthusiasm for the family business and brought a progressive style of management to the Neu’s team.

“It wasn’t until I really caught the vision of what Neu’s is about that I really got a heart for the hardware business,” said Neu, who owns the business today. “Our vision is to make our customers successful and to make our vendors successful. The key to our success has been to always keeping others’ focus before ourselves, to always have a listening ear to our customers’ needs.”

Neu said that’s how they grew their product mix, because theformed the business around the needs of the community. Until a few years ago, Neu's  focused mainly on the contracting trades. However, they later got involved with industry because the Falls has several established companies that have been here longer than them, Neu said. 

“There are so many industries in Germantown and Menomonee Falls that use us to meet their needs,” Neu said.

In 1993, the Neu’s hardware division branched off from Neu’s Supply Line (lumber division) to become Neu’s Building Center, Inc. Several expansions and renovations of the company marked the next decade, as Neu’s focused on serving contractors, industries and meeting the hardware store needs of everyone in between.

In 2001, Neu’s expanded to a 41,000-square-foot retail store and, in 2004 and 2005, expansions included adding a Hardware Gallery show room featuring 100 manufacturers on display, and an expanded outdoor power equipment selection to include manufacturers like Honda, Hustler, Stihl and Kawasaki.

Today, Neu’s Building Center employs 58 people and enjoys a national and international reputation for being an integral part of the distribution chain linking the manufacturer with the skilled consumer.

After nearly 40 years, Harvey Neu has a clear understanding of why his business has been so successful. He thoroughly understands the market and has carved out a substantial niche.

“It’s having a pulse on the community and your customers,” Neu said.  “A lot of the bigger stores are so big that they focus on only the top 10 sellers. They focus on items they can buy in quantities, meet customers’ needs and give them a good price, but they forget about the other 90 percent of the things that people need to survive, things we sell every day. For them, it would be wasted shelf space. We have our niche, the contracting trade and industry. We’re in the tools business and we have quality tools.”

Naturally, customer loyalty is critically important. But there are other important factors as well.

“We have a lot of great businesses in Menomonee Falls and I have the best customers in the world,” said Neu. “But if I had to survive on just Menomonee Falls customers I would have been out of business a long time ago.”

He said their location next to the freeway was a godsend and, when moved in it was an even bigger blessing because they drew traffic “like you wouldn’t believe.”

Most of all, the Neu’s success story is built around people – the customers and the employees who make sure their needs are met.

“I have a great staff here and a great management team,” Neu said. “I’ve got guy named Mike Karch who started here when he was 16 and has been managing the place for several years. The team has kept us at the forefront of the industry and we’re known worldwide. We really appreciate the customer loyalty.  As an owner, I really appreciate my help. I couldn’t do without the staff I have here. They are just stellar.”