Jeremy Smith’s family-owned business demonstrated a steely resolve in getting through double catastrophes over the last five years – and coming out of both revived and refreshed.

“Two things – the pandemic and the fire – and you learn to take what the market gives you,” Smith said of COVID-19 and a 2022 New Year’s Day fire that destroyed Matt’s Building Materials flagship store in Pharr. “You never let a good problem go to waste.”

Smith was referencing the succession of changes and shifts in the construction industry since 2020 and how it continues to alter supply chains. Stores like Matt’s with locations in Palmview, Pharr, Harlingen and San Benito have gone through what Smith calls “a big learning curve.” Shipping building materials via truck instead of rail has become more cost effective. Southern-grown yellow pine has increasingly supplemented wood sources from Canada and other parts of the United States as a primary material to build new homes.

Since 2020, Matt’s has become less retailed-oriented and more focused on servicing and supplying contractors and builders. It has sought to refine and improve its delivery services and is providing quicker express drive-through capabilities at its four Valley locations while planning new stores in Brownsville and Edinburg.

“Every year has been vastly different from the year before,” Smith said of the past five years. “One thing we know is that, bottom line, contractors want to get in and out of our stores and get back to their job sites. We want to lead the market in those expectations.”

Increasing Cameron County Footprint

Matt’s is a legacy business in the Valley and is in its seventh decade of operations in the region.

It hit a low point in its long history nearly four years ago when a huge fire wiped out its 120,000-square-foot store in Pharr. Since then, Smith and his brothers, Ben and Isaac, along with Matt’s patriarch – their father Danny – have regrouped and retooled. They reopened in Pharr in early 2024 with a newly built 55,000-square-foot facility. The Smith family followed that up with the opening of a 10,000-square-foot store in Harlingen in late 2024.

Matt’s is looking to increase its footprint in Cameron County. Jeremy Smith is actively scouting for a Brownsville location that is in the general area of state highways 48 and 511 in the general vicinity of the city’s port. The Smiths also have their eye on the fast-growing stretches of northern Edinburg and hope to secure a spot along the expressway of U.S. Highway 281.

The newer stores, in retrospect, were built with too much of a focus on retail, Jeremy Smith said. What has become clear, he said, is that Matt’s needs to be more oriented toward contracting business and less so toward DIY customers. The latter remains an important part of Matt’s business, but Smith said one of the things learned since 2020 is that providing “retail service is expensive” when compared to the revenues and efficiencies of servicing contractors.

In making adjustments, the new stores in Pharr and Harlingen have been refitted to provide additional grounds to store and distribute building materials. Securing more property at the Harlingen store along Expressway 77 will lead to more storage and distribution bays and expanding services for its contractor business base.

“You need to adapt,” Smith said. “We’re moving toward a smaller retail concept. All of your accessories have to support the meat and potatoes of your business. If you don’t do that, things will get in the way of what you do best.”

Gaining Clarity

The “learning curve” Smith speaks of is ongoing for Matt’s, and he speaks with exuberance of the challenges and opportunities ahead.

The Smith family has often spoken of the importance of faith in how they operate their business and manage and value their employees. There are hints of that philosophy when Smith talks of how the family business dealt with those extraordinary back-to-back challenges. As daunting events as both were, there was clarity gained in how to move forward and best operate the business in a new era.

“When the scariest things that can happen to you happens, everything that comes after it looks less scary,” Smith said. “We’ve never seen challenges like what we’ve experienced since 2020. You learn to pivot and I’ve pivoted a lot over the last five years.”