History
In 1988 Van Laan Construction Supply was formed with the idea that the West Michigan concrete contractor needed a supplier who truly understood their business. That level of understanding is only possible when the supplier has walked in the contractor's shoes and has the knowledge and experience necessary to provide the best service possible. Our humble beginning consisted of a handful of customers, a pick-up truck, a small rented warehouse, and one full-time employee with field experience. The product line was limited to some rigid insulation, wire mesh and rebar. We had a single bender, and our first shear line could only handle 20' stock and was only capable of cutting 8 #5 bars at a time.
Van Laan's commitment to our customers' needs and timelines allowed us to grow considerably during those early years. Our one employee grew to be three in a short time, and we hired our first dedicated salesperson six years later. In 1994 we moved into our current location at 3240 68th street and suddenly had a showroom and a much larger warehouse. With this new space we added more fabrication equipment and were able to greatly expand our product offerings to include construction chemicals, patching products, a wide variety of hand tools, sprayers, gloves, and much more.
During the second half of the 90's we continued to expand the services we could provide to our customers. We began to offer concrete pump, and truck crane rental services. We upgraded our delivery fleet and added full-time drivers. We started producing our own shop drawings using aSa CAD software, and hired detailers to perform that work. We continued to expand our product line and added more salespeople. Back then a 100-ton job was a challenge and we worked hard to prove we could handle it.
In 2000 we expanded again, adding a fabrication yard at 6940 Hammond Avenue. This included replacing our old 20' shear line with a new 40' shear line capable of cutting 17 #5 bars at a time. We also added two new table benders as well. With all of our fabrication equipment now in one place and arranged more efficiently, we had truly expanded our capacity. By 2005 our annual rebar sales reached 13,000 tons and we were handling individual jobs in excess of 1,000 tons. In 2006 we upgraded our shear line again, increasing our capacity to 28 #5 bars at one time and helping us to reach over 15,000 tons in 2007.
Today we look nothing like we did 20 years ago. Our fabrication equipment consists of two shear lines (40' and 20'), 2 table benders capable of bending up to #9 bar, two automatic coil benders, and an automated double table bender capable of bending up to #18 bar. Our fleet now includes a one ton stake truck with a trailer, 2 flat bed trucks with dump beds. 2 semi tractors, and five sales vehicles. We have forklifts, pettibones, and other equipment used to move product. And our product line now consists of over 2,000 products in stock and various special-order items as well.
All of this equipment, however, would be useless without the over 25 knowledgeable and dedicated employees at Van Laan. We have been blessed over the years with many great employees that have made our growth possible. And through all these years and changes, Van Laan remains committed to the same ideals that we started with: do the very best we can to provide our customers what they need, when they need them, and at a competitive price. All of us at Van Laan are proud of our past and look with anticipation to what the future will bring us. If you have been a customer of ours in the past, we thank you for choosing Van Laan Construction Supply. If you have not used us before, we invite you to let us earn your business.
