Fueling longevity: Bliffert co-owner carries on family operations

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When Eli Bliffert walked into the lumberyard in 1993, he never expected to stay.

He was going to grad school.

“Grad school lasted one semester,” he deadpanned, “and lumber has lasted 20-plus years.”

Despite his family connections — Bliffert’s uncle, Fred Bliffert, was president when Eli joined the crew — Bliffert worked his way up, first in the yard and later as a delivery driver.

“Which I was terrible at, by the way. I was pretty much guaranteed to get lost at least once on every delivery.”

Today, Bliffert is co-owner and vice president of Bliffert Lumber and Fuel, and the fifth generation of his family to lead the company that was started by his great-great-grandfather, Christian Meckelburg, in 1904.

“If your father or grandfather or uncle didn’t bring you into a lumber yard at some point in your life you might not know we exist, but we have a great sense of history in the Milwaukee area,” Bliffert said. “We’re the only lumber company left in the city of Milwaukee.”

The 111-year-old company is such a part of the city’s history that the innards of Bliffert’s original office on Chambers Street were recently added to the newly redesigned Streets of Old Milwaukee exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum.

Bliffert still has a home on Chambers Street; the original office was replaced with a new 8,000-square-foot store in 2009. These days, Bliffert finds himself bouncing between that store and seven others, including locations in Cudahy, Sturtevant and Waukesha.

“We have some retail locations. We’ve got locations that are just industrial. The primary part of our business is still single-family, new construction, but we also do commercial and multifamily,” Bliffert said. “I get to every location once a week, most of them twice a week. We are a family business. I say, ‘Hello,’ to people. I tell guys ‘Happy birthday.’ Just because you got bigger you shouldn’t take the cool parts of being a family business out of it.”

It’s part of the reason he’s proud to help maintain the company’s footprint in the metro area, which includes about 145 employees.

“We have no desire to sell the company or expand beyond southeastern Wisconsin,” said Bliffert, who recently joined the Indiana-based Do It Best Corp.’s board of directors. “This is where we’re from. This is where we are, and we appreciate all that.”

Which is why, Bliffert said, he’s positive the company will remain a family operation.

“My kids already work part-time,” Bliffert said. “Sofia is 13; she works the register. Devlin, who is 15, puts lawnmowers together, puts grills together, puts lumber away. So few businesses make it to a second generation, let alone fifth or sixth. We appreciate that. Whether we’re helping people fix something they can’t fix or it’s a big commercial project, like Miller Park or the new Northwestern Mutual towers downtown, it’s fun to be part of that.”

The Daily Reporter: When you have a bad day, what keeps you coming back to work?
Eli Bliffert: I think family, knowing that we’ve got so many really long-term employees, my uncle, my mother, my grandfather, my great-grandfather — that’s what keeps me going; that and a long-term perspective, knowing if I have a bad day, I’m not going to remember it 10 years from now.

TDR: What is the most useful thing you’ve learned since starting your job?
Bliffert: I think just to invest in people and try to always take a long-term approach to every problem or solution.

TDR: What do you wish you’d learned sooner?
Bliffert: I think one of the most important things I’ve learned is to never put off difficult decisions.

TDR: What do you consider your biggest achievement so far?
Bliffert: I think it’s bringing the company through the 2009 recession and growing when a lot of my competitors were shrinking or closing up shop.

TDR: What can you spend hours doing that’s not work-related?
Bliffert: Reading. I don’t really watch TV; I’m a reader.

TDR: If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Bliffert: I’d like to be better about leaving on time and going home to my wife and kids. That’s probably the worst one.

TDR: What are you craving right now?
Bliffert: It’s a little early, but always a Lakefront (Brewery) beer.

TDR: Which famous person would most like to have a drink with?
Bliffert: I think it would be Ronald Reagan, and I think it would be a Lakefront beer.