When Mike Johnson first started out as a full-time outside salesman for his father’s business, Johnson Lumber Company, in 1989, he couldn’t figure out why prospective clients would run away from him when he walked up to a construction site.
Dressed in khakis and a buttoned-up shirt, Johnson—fresh out of San Jose State University—would drive around Gilroy and farther south to towns such as Hollister and Salinas, look for ongoing construction and stop over to try to make his sales pitch to the onsite builder on behalf of Johnson Lumber.
There was just one problem: nobody would talk to him.
“Guys would literally be running from me. I would go to these job sites and guys would just not talk to me,” recalled Johnson, who eventually caught up to one of them long enough to learn that they thought he was a building inspector by the way he dressed.
“I’ve been wearing shorts ever since,” said Johnson, who now sits as the owner and chief executive officer for Johnson Lumber, the company he inherited from his father, Keith Johnson, after his passing in 1995.
Although he’s now at the top of the corporate ladder, Mike Johnson—who has led the expansion of Johnson Lumber throughout the region over the last decade—passes all the credit to his current and former employees who helped groom him into the lumber leader he is today.
“All the spokes have to work right. If we all do our part, the wheel rolls pretty good,” said Johnson, 51, who employs 200 workers between the Morgan Hill Johnson Lumber/Ace Hardware store (located on Tennant Avenue) and his two Ace Hardware locations in Hollister and Salinas. “We’re successful because of our people. I have a ton of people who have been here a long time.”
His parents, Keith and Marilyn Johnson, started the lumber company in 1980, which they ran out of a former location on Railroad Avenue. Mike started working part-time at the lumber yard until after high school, when he was a student at SJSU.
Earning his keep, Johnson—born and raised in Aptos—did everything from picking weeds to driving the delivery truck and forklift to pretty much whatever was asked of him at that time.
“It was a great job for a college kid,” said Johnson, who became a full-time sales employee at his dad’s Johnson Lumber in 1989. “Working in all these different areas, I really know the lumber business.”
The family business first expanded when it moved its Morgan Hill lumberyard Dec. 7, 1992 from from Railroad to Tennant, where it was formerly Scarborough Lumber. In doing so, and inheriting an Ace Hardware store in the process, Mike planned to focus on the hardware while his dad continued in lumber. However, tragedy struck in 1995 when Keith Johnson became ill and passed away.
“I went into survival mode. Failure wasn’t gonna be an option,” said Mike Johnson, who was thrust into running both sides of the business. “I had a great headstart with my dad teaching me…I have people with me who were here when my dad was still around and they helped me every step of the way.”
Expanding the family business
With support from many, Johnson went to work and, in 1997, he opened an Ace Hardware in Hollister (expanded to 10,000 square feet in 2015) and then another hardware store in Salinas in 2001. Morgan Hill remains the only lumber yard within the Johnson family, which remodeled the office retail warehouse from its original 7,500 square feet to 28,000 square feet. Not stopping there, he then opened the Garden Center next-door in 2006 while also expanding the lumber yard to 10 acres, making it the largest south of San Francisco.
However, Johnson was hit hard two years later, between 2008-2010, when the recession hit and new construction all but seized. Johnson saw a 50 percent decline in sales. But like he said, failure was not an option.
“We spent that time fine-tuning our business plan and what we wanted to do when we came out,” Johnson explained. “Now, all of our stores are super high-performing and top in the region.”
Detailing the business without giving specific numbers, Johnson said 80 to 90 percent of lumber sold is for new home construction, mostly single family custom homes and north of Morgan Hill along the I-280 corridor. The company makes 30 to 40 deliveries of lumber per day, Johnson revealed.
Grooming the next generation
Now more than two decades in since taking over the business, Johnson is a father of three adult children—two sons, Brett, 27, and Adam, 25, as well as one daughter, Kaeli, 23. His oldest boy, Brett, joined the family business five years ago after graduating from Santa Clara University.
“I’m just so happy we’re starting that third generation,” said Johnson of having his son on staff. “He’s a super kid. He’s got a little sawdust in his veins.”
All three of his children have worked part-time in some capacity at the family business.
Brett helps with inventory control in the purchasing and sales department at Johnson Lumber, and he’s just as excited to be working with his father as Mike is to have him aboard.
“It can’t get any better than working with family. You just have that support and everything you need to be successful,” said Brett as he walked out onto the lumber yard with his pops on a breezy spring afternoon. “It’s one of those things where everything is a little more personal because it’s family. You take a little more pride in what you do. You want to be perfect or as close to perfect as you can be.”
Giving back to community
Making Johnson Lumber a perfect match with Morgan Hill and a successful business for close to 40 years, Mike Johnson stressed giving back to the local community. In 2011, Johnson was named the recipient of the Leadership Excellence Award for his philanthropic contributions to the local community. He has continued his giving ways as a generous supporter of churches, schools, youth sports, scouting and many other nonprofit organizations.
Johnson Lumber continues to sponsor and support countless fundraisers and community events.
“We’ve asked the community to support us so we support this community. When you have the opportunity to help out, I think you should. That’s something my dad started and taught me about,” Mike Johnson said. “I’m really proud of the Morgan Hill community. I moved here in 1990 and raised my kids here. It’s a great community.”
