Hoyt's has helped build Sisters over three decades

Since 1976, Hoyt's Hardware & Building Supply has played a major role in supplying contractors and property owners throughout Sisters Country and much of Central Oregon with what they need to build or repair their homes and businesses.

Now as the business moves into its 39th year of operation, founder and owner Chuck Hoyt is enjoying retirement. He has turned management of the company over to his son, Tyler, confident that his son and the company staff that averages over 25 years of service will continue to offer customers the quality service typical of a small business - backed by a big company's inventory.

"Customers hold the secret to the success of any private business," Chuck says today. "You can have discount prices and a big selection, but if the customer doesn't get the service they want you will not be successful."

Chuck grew up in the Lake Oswego area, where his father had a career as a locomotive engineer. His first job was at the age of 14 when he went to work for a wholesale lumber company. During the next few years he learned the trade from top to bottom. After 12 years, he moved on to another wholesale lumber company before going to work for a lumber broker. They shipped lumber all over the country, with Chuck's territory being Chicago and St. Louis.

"I learned that business from the tree to the retail," he recalls. He then started his own wholesale company in the Portland area, specializing in laminated wood products.

Before moving to Sisters, Chuck had always enjoyed spending time at his cabin in the Camp Sherman area, although he remembers that at that time you couldn't buy a bag of nails in Sisters.

"Everybody went to Bend every single day for any construction item, sometimes twice a day," he remembers.

When he decided to start his business in Bend, he talked to a local Realtor, the late Bill Reed. Reed offered to build a building at the corner of East Hood Avenue and South Fir Street, the current home of EuroSports. At that time Hood Avenue had only old buildings and a few houses with no other commercial businesses.

"Bill gave me a break to get started. I sold my home in Portland and made the move," he recalls. "I was going to lease that building forever and it was going to be a hardware store with no lumber. However, Black Butte Ranch was going gangbusters and everybody that came in needed a post or some lumber that I didn't have. So, we started ordering house packages from Portland wholesalers. After a while those companies started catering to us by delivering to Sisters."

These delivery trucks would park and unload their lumber in the middle of Hood Avenue so that lumber could be moved to the graveled lumber yard next door, where vehicles would often get stuck. Finally, after three or four years, the Sisters mayor came to him and said that Chuck had to do something to keep from blocking Hood Avenue all the time. Chuck and Bill Reed solved that problem by each purchasing five acres in the growing Sisters Industrial Park.

"We've been hanging in here ever since," Chuck says.

The retail store and the large storage structure are located at 440 N. Pine St.

Chuck says that one of the major challenges the company had as it expanded was to convince customers that they were not ripping them off because of their location and small size compared to the big building-supply stores in Bend.

"Customers would come in and say 'how much money could I save by driving to Bend?' and I would tell them 'Just call Bend and find out.'"

By maintaining competitive prices, Hoyt's overcame that challenge, and today they do over half of their business in Bend and Redmond.

He likes most of what has happened in Sisters over the past 38 years, although he is not excited about the work being done on Cascade Avenue, with narrower streets and fewer parking places. He has more concerns about the roundabout planned at the west edge of Sisters. Long semi trucks and trailers 85 to 90 feet long that deliver materials to the store will have to navigate through this roundabout just to reach the main entrance of the industrial park.

"They should make the highway wider with a turn lane," he believes.

Over the years, the business has become more sophisticated in helping builders package materials for a project. Hoyt also believes that local government has become responsive to contractors.

"It used to take so long to get a building permit. Now you can get one in a week," he says.

He is concerned about the current management of forests.

"We have more trees growing than we have two-by-fours," he says.

Over the years, Hoyt has contributed time to the Sisters community. He served on the board of directors of the High Mountains Dixieland Jazz Festival for the 10 years the festival was held. He was on the budget committee of the Sisters School District for seven years and supported school activities while his children were in school. He also has been a long-time member of the Sisters Rodeo Association and volunteered with the association for many years.

Five years ago, Chuck retired and turned the management of the business over to Tyler with the support of Chuck's daughter Chelsea. Now a widower, he still drops in at the store frequently and pays attention to the cash flow, but he spends more time fishing, hunting, and traveling. When asked about the elk and deer trophies displayed at the business, he explains that some are his and others are from his son and friends.

"However, the biggest one is mine," he notes, referring to a large bull elk.

He lives in the same home built on property he bought when he came to Sisters. He has a place at the coast and a cabin in Alaska. He and his son have fished in Argentina and Mexico, and he has traveled to Italy.

"I could sell the business, but why?" he says. "If I did that, I would have to get a job."