Phone Interview with Jim Pappas, Aug 17 & Personal interview with Jim at his home Aug 18 and Corrections Aug 21 (One 60th Anniversary magazine ad given to Sam)
Additional contacts for photos and assistance are Claudia Shay (Self Help Housing Corp) and Wayne Lincoln at Honsador. (Approved Aug 21)
Jim graduated from San Francisco State in 1963.
Management Trainee in the bay area for Kaiser Industries
1966 transferred to Hawaii Kai Development Corporation
(Henry Kaiser stories and sources are K. Tim Yee/ member of Waialae mid-70’s and Dave Stringer/ architect used to live on Kaiser estate, designed Hawaii Kai)
1969-1978 Lewers & Cooke (founded in 1852-no connection to Castle & Cooke)
1969-1974 served as CFO
1974-1978 served as Exec VP when he was promoted into this opening
In this position, he learned all about marketing and ran the sales and operations.
“I would go out to the contractor’s offices and would talk to them. I kept asking ‘What do you need from Lewers & Cooke?’ He learned all about what contractors really needed and not what I thought they needed”
Contractors needed credit, bonding, service, availability of materials and surprisingly, price was not the big issue.
“Contractors could not afford to wait for you and your service” If we could provide the best service, we could satisfy our customers needs.
1974-1978 Big Four Competitors were Amfac (all islands), Mid-Pac Lumber, City Mill (wholesale division) and Honsador Inc. Amfac was the leader, however all these companies had “favorite” contractor customers who didn’t shop around. Customers you bonded had a loyalty to you (a stranglehold to some) and Jim thought you should “earn” the customers’ business-not simply demand loyalty due to the bonding. Jim’s philosophy was to do a little business with everybody, which would help you withstand the cyclical ups and downs, grow market share and go after everybody as a customer. Amfac and Mid Pac were very comfortable with exclusive big customers, so Jim looked for niche opportunities.
July 1, 1978 Jim becomes the President of Honsador, Inc. Annual Sales $4.5 million (smallest company of the Big Four)
Jim’s goal as the new President, Honsador would offer the best service.
He immediately starting talking to his customers about what they needed, condo projects were exploding, especially on Maui and Kauai and Jim’s partnership approach to business immediately generated business.
“If you want to be a salesperson, listen and learn from the customer-how can you serve them?”
“I believe in taking risks, you don’t reap rewards if you don’t take risks”
“If you create good business, you’ll feel good at the end of the day”
Dec 31, 1978 Annual Sales grew to $11.3 million (Jim had more than doubled the company volume in his first six months leading the company.
Dec 31, 1979 Annual Sales grew to $18.1 million (Jim had more than quadrupled the company volume in his first 18 months leading the company.
In 1980, Honsador acquired the City Mill wholesale division
In 1981, Honsador acquired the Maui office of Lewers & Cooke
In 1984, Honsador supported the buy out of Honolulu Wood Treating (HWT) from Koppers Corp.
In 1984, Jim acquired Honsador, Inc. from Mr. Gray. In this acquisition he changed the company to Honsador Lumber Corporation and his great team also stayed in place. Two key individuals are:
Mabel Higa has been the heart and soul of the company going back to the 50’s when she first joined Honolulu Sash & Door. Mabel ran the lumber yard and sold lots of high quality redwood to Harold Hicks. Mabel started the lumber division of Honolulu Sash & Door, literally doing it all with her small team from sales to estimating, quoting, running the yard and even driving a forklift. Wyman Williams, an Executive VP, also played a critical role as the technical expert for all wood products, as well as the prominent sales and marketing team member. Jim highly regards Mabel and Wyman.
Jim focused on statewide services and the distribution of drop-ship materials service to all neighbor islands. The company goal was to be represented in every market, better serve the customers and offer true statewide distribution. Jim was always looking for opportunities to grow the business and market share while helping his contractor and developer customers. In 1986 the company opened an office in Kona, later opened an office in Hilo and in 1992 opened an office in Kauai. Hurricane Iniki had devastated the island, the company kept materials prices low and shipped for free as a way to support the rebuilding efforts. (Note, in 1988 Jim opened Ariel Trusses).
Two innovative products that Honsador Lumber Corporation brought to the islands were James Hardie cement shingles and cement siding and OSB (Oriented Strand Board) from LP (Louisiana Pacific) in the 1990’s. OSB offered builders a material with the benefits of termite resistance and heat reflective thermal panel energy efficiencies. These new products were also important to a business with lumber and wood products generating 50% of total sales.
Over the years, Honsador Lumber Corporation has been very active in supporting the creation of low cost/ affordable housing. Honsador Model 1104 was the standard for HHA (Hawaii Housing Authority), FmHA (Farm Home Administration) and DHHL (Department of Hawaiian Home Lands). Honsador gave the house plans for Free with the purchase of the building materials, as well as totally supporting the contractors and developers with bonding, financing and statewide materials distribution. Since 1980, over 5,000 affordable Honsador homes have been built on all major islands. Jim is very proud of this as he stated, “We have been a good steward over the years with our involvement in low-end housing. We have always put our customers first, and when I look around all the islands, I think Honsador has supplied materials for one out of every two housing projects. There is a solid history of support and service to the contractors and developers within our building industry.”