Our Company

Today's Stine began in 1952, as our founder, J. W. Stine, and his partner, J.C. Carlin, established the "Starlin Lumber Company" in Sulphur, Louisiana, to supply their needs as residential building contractors. J.W. and J.C. met when both were bomber pilots in Europe during WWII. Their business partnership began after the war, and the competition was fierce, as many contractors also established "stick yards" to buy their materials. It is said that, at its height, the small town of Sulphur had NINE such yards! Business rocked along when, beginning in 1966, the first of all six Stine sons joined Starlin. In 1974, six of Starlin ten employees were Stines (Carlin having left the company in 1952), and the name was changed to Stine Lumber. From our single store in Sulphur, we built new ones in nearby DeRidder in the 70s and Lake Charles in the 90s. Acquisitions brought new opportunities with stores in Jennings, Iowa, Alexandria, Crowley, Natchitoches, Natchez (Mississippi), and Abbeville. Today, we have built new stores in Walker, Lafayette, Jennings, Sulphur, and Natchez while refurbishing ALL our other properties simultaneously. Stine is expanding to new markets as well. More on that news as it develops! Of course, the home improvement industry has its own history, beginning much as Stine did with those so-called "contractor yards." As more homeowners and do-it-yourselfers wanted to buy materials to do their own work, the concept of the Home Improvement Center came into vogue in the early seventies. Stine successes continued as we began to cater to the D-I-Y market. Our retail business has exploded over the years, and accounts for about two-thirds of our sales each year, with builder sales making up the balance. Stine is among the Top 100 home improvement retailers in America. Our association with Ace Hardware has been successful as well; sales figures place us fourth among all 6,000 Ace retailers worldwide!