MONROE — The transition from the fathers to the sons would have been easier a few years ago, before a recession slowed the construction business.

But Travis Zimmerman remains confident in the New Glarus Lumber Co., a business that for the last 20 years has been owned and operated by his father, Al Zimmerman, and business partner, Jeff Kernen.

Travis Zimmerman and Jake Kernen have been selected to lead the company into the future, one that could see more of the business focused on remodeling instead of new home projects, and the addition of a Menards on Monroe’s north side.

Al Zimmerman and Jeff Kernen worked for Menards in the 1970s and 1980s building pole barns throughout southern Wisconsin. In 1989, they purchased New Glarus Lumber Co. and, in 1999, added the Monroe Lumber Co. About 80 percent of the sales come from contractors, who buy their supplies from the company’s locations in New Glarus and Monroe.

Q: How has the transfer of the business to the next generation been impacted by the recession?

Jeff Kernen: It’s a matter of collateral. Myself and (Al) have a lot of collateral in the business and the banker wants to see that collateral replaced when these boys take over. We’re really looking forward to it and (our sons) are doing an excellent job. We’re working with a good local bank, but they’re just watching their P’s and Q’s like a hawk right now. Five years ago, I thought our debts would be paid down and these guys would be able to walk into the bank and we’d hand over the keys. It’s not the transition we had envisioned.

Q: The recession has also slowed the construction businesses. What has that meant for your company?

Jeff Kernen: It was a long, tough winter. We normally had a half-dozen houses going in New Glarus and a couple three here, but now it’s a lot of remodeling and a lot of window replacement, door replacement, siding and roofs.

Q: Do you have confidence in the business?

Travis Zimmerman: Oh, yeah, we do. We’ve been a stable company over the years and we’re contractor-based. Most of our business is still local. Our business has shrunk, but we haven’t lost a ton of contractors that have gone out of business. What they’ve been buying has decreased, but they’re still in business and they’re still pretty optimistic about the future. We look at our list of what we have upcoming and it’s not super, but it’s not bleak, either, and that gives us some confidence.

Jeff Kernen: We used to see a lot of upgrading. They’d sell their little Cape Cod (house) downtown here for $120,000 and go build a $250,000 house.

Travis Zimmerman: Over the years, most of our clientele were people who were retiring from Madison and moving to the New Glarus area or towards Blanchardville. We also had a lot of people from Illinois. They had homes in the Chicago area and were life-long professionals and had visited the area and found a nice little 40-acre lot and built a house. The whole business atmosphere of what we did five years ago to what we’re going to be doing in a few years is not going to be the same.

Q: If the company is more focused on remodeling and not new construction, how does that change your business?

Jeff Kernen: It’s just going to stabilize it.

Travis Zimmerman: One of things we’re looking at expanding into is some of the more “green” ideas. We’ll also see more business with the Energy Star programs with the tax incentives. We’ve seen a lot of interest in that. The more specialized things, I think, that’s going to be our niche.

Q: Why are you not too worried about the possible construction of a Menards in Monroe?

Jeff Kernen: We might lose some retail to them, for sure, but a lot of people travel to other towns, whether it’s Janesville, Madison, Dubuque (Iowa) or Freeport (Ill.) to shop at those places anyhow. For our contractors, we run accounts for them all month long. We do billing for them, estimating for them, free delivery for them.

Travis Zimmerman: We hope we can retain our 80 percent and grow our contractor base. Loyalty is a big thing in our business. Probably well over half of our customers have been customers since 1989 or even earlier. They’re repeat customers and there are new customers coming in.

Q: How do you keep the relationship strong with younger contractors who are new to the business?

Travis Zimmerman: It’s the service.

Q: What’s different about working in a family-owned business compared to other businesses?

Travis Zimmerman: For me, in all of the jobs I’ve ever worked at, I’ve never worked at a big company. Growing up in high school, you worked for farmers, so that family atmosphere has always been there. For here, the family atmosphere is a lot more laid back and you have a lot more understanding of what’s happening. I’m not really sure what it’s like not to work for a family-owned business.

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NEW GLARUS LUMBER CO.

Jeff Kernen, 58, co-owner

Travis Zimmerman, 37, controller

Locations: New Glarus and Monroe

Employees: 10

Annual revenues: $2.5 million

Founded: 1887

Web site: www.newglaruslumber.com