VAN Steensel Timbers of Grantville and Officer marked 60 years of trading recently, with promotions, special giveaways and barbecues held throughout April to celebrate the milestone.
The Grantville store was established about 35 years ago, an addition to the Officer business.
Now thriving, the business grew from humble beginnings in 1965, after Jan Van Steensel began sourcing second-hand timber from building sites, demolitions and auctions, to sell, before branching out into new building materials.
Jan and Freda Van Steensel’s four sons later took over the business and continue to run the two store locations, with Steve and Bruce managing the Grantville store and Peter and David managing the Officer store.
Steve puts their ongoing success and longevity down to being a family business, priding themselves on customer service and the willingness to go the extra mile for their customers.
Van Steensel Timbers in Grantville has continued to expand over the years, offering not only a huge range of timber, but also hardware, tools and gardening equipment, with a nursery also being added about four years ago.
Being in a key location and with a huge increase in the population locally, the demand for goods and services has grown, especially in the past ten years, commented Steve.
“Officer is right in the nitty-gritty of suburbia with their customer base being mainly trade and many of those being customers from the very beginning, which is a huge testament to the service that has been brought forward with the generations. Whereas down here, we’re kept busy with our locals and our loyal trade customers – it is such a growing area, Corinella, Coronet Bay, Phillip Island, San Remo, Grantville, Wonthaggi, Inverloch,” explained Steve.
“We have trucks travelling all over Melbourne, with communication and stock transfers between the two stores on a daily basis.”
Living locally himself, Steve is actively involved in the community and Van Steensel Timbers have always been happy to support local sporting clubs, and other groups and organisations through sponsorships.
However, what Steve and the team enjoys most about working in the family business is having the opportunity to make other people happy.
“People come in and we give them a quote or advice to help them with their projects and often get feedback and photos, and gratitude when completed. Our trade customers are the same, often showing us photos of finished jobs which gives us all a sense of team effort satisfaction.”
