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FOUNTAIN VALLEY — National Lumber & Supply Inc. said Monday that it has appointed a seasoned home center veteran as its new executive vice president and chief operating officer. In the

newly created position, Marty Schaeffer will have responsibilities for all aspects of National Lumber’s operations with the sole exception of finance. He will report directly to National

Lumber President Mel Jaffee. Schaeffer, 43, is the latest executive to join the troubled National Lumber as it brings in new blood to revive its business. Last month, the company named

HomeClub veteran Max Robuck as its general merchandising manager. Schaeffer comes to National Lumber from a position as vice president of Chicago-based Handy Andy Home Centers, a 52-store

chain, where he was in charge of specialty retailing. He also served as a senior vice president at two of National Lumber’s most bitter rivals, HomeClub and Builders Emporium. “Marty’s

extensive home center management experience and his leadership skills will be of great value as we change our store format and implement new merchandising strategies and customer services at

National Lumber,” Jaffee said in a statement. “His appointment will be instrumental in our effort.” He arrives at a chain of home centers that sank into a Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this

year in the face of heated competition in the home improvement market. Since then, the company has been restructuring: It closed six unprofitable stores, stocked its depleted stores with

new merchandise and moved away from large selections of basic building materials such as lumber and nails toward more popular and lucrative markets such as custom kitchens and mini-blinds.

It launched an advertising campaign to position the chain as a smaller, friendlier alternative to home improvement warehouse stores. National Lumber was founded as a Bellflower hardware

store in 1942 by Mel Jaffee’s father, Sol Jaffee. The chain thrived as it built to 20 stores until the 1980s, when it started to lose business to competitors such as Home Depot and HomeClub.

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