Morrison merges with CNRG

Local insiders contend that customers and employees of the Morrison Terrebonne Lumber Center should experience business as usual following last week’s official announcement that the Houma building supply company, that can trace its roots back 87 years, had merged with the Central Network Retail Group.

The acquisition was made for an undisclosed amount and was orchestrated by Dallas-based mergers advisor Generational Equity.

“The partnership between Morrison Terrebonne Lumber and CNRG is mutually beneficial for the two groups,” Generational Equity President Ryan Binkly said through PR Newswire.

According to a release from CNRG, Morrison Lumber Center will become a partner in that organization’s group of lumber and home improvement businesses, and will continue to operate under its own banner.

Additionally, Morrison Terrebonne Lumber Center President Doug Gregory, who has held partnership in the local business with Keith Voisin, Greg Landry and David Vice, has been added to the CNRG board of directors.

“Doug and his partners … have built a great company in Houma,” CNRG President Boyden Moore said in a corporate press release. “They operate a dominant commercial builder-focused home center as well as a neighborhood True Value Hardware store. They completely understand CNRG’s vision for operating multi-format, multi-branded locations since they have been doing it since 2003.”

According to CNRG, the Morrison-operated True Value Hardware Store will be converted to a Home Hardware Center.

Neither Gregory, nor his partners were available to comment on the merger and a store employee said they would be out of town until late Monday.

“My partners and I are excited about this new venture,” Gregory said in the PR Newswire report. “It will provide an excellent opportunity to grow out business while maintaining our identity in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes.”

“It’s not an outright sale,” former owner Chester Morrison said of the deal with CNRG. “It is more of a merger with a co-operative group.”

Morrison said the roots the Morrison Terrebonne Lumber Center date back to 1924 when his father opened the Houma Brick and Box Co. Morrison was raised in the business and following college took on a management capacity in the 1957. From there he led the company’s growth. Houma Brick and Box Co. underwent a name change to Morrison Home Center in 1973.

With a merger between Morrison Home Center and Terrebonne Lumber Co. in 1998 the Morrison Terrebonne Lumber Center was born. Chester Morrison sold his interest in the business to his son-in-law (Doug Gregory) in 2002.

“I don’t like to say the business is owned by an out-of-town group,” Morrison said. “I guess it is, but it was done as a move to get the [networking resources] with a larger group.”

The Morrison merger leaves Chauvin Brothers Lumber in Chauvin as the only 100-percent locally-owned business of this kind in Terrebonne Parish.

“I know Doug and all those guys,” Chauvin Brothers Vice President Chris Tucker said. “I know that they are still going to be there. We like being local and I know retail-wise we are the oldest continually run business in Terrebonne and Lafourche [parishes dating back to 1875].”

Tucker said that anytime there is change in any given field initial concern is sure to follow, but not always founded.

“We’ve seen the Lowe’s and others come to town, but we’re still in business,” he said. “Business in general has been slow [for the lumber and construction business] in the last couple of years and building permits are not there, but from what I understand walking in [the Morrison Terrebonne Lumber Center] you won’t know the difference.”

Sunday was quiet at Morrison Terrebonne Lumber Center but a new week saw business as usual while the building supplier finalized a merger with the Central Network Retail Group. MIKE NIXON