Our History

Bert Thomas founded Northern Building Supply in 1948. Over the years it has expanded and grown to become Vancouver’s largest privately held, single-location, building supply outlet.

Bert’s extensive knowledge of the building supply business started as a teenager, where one of his first jobs was buying and selling lumber for someone else. Later, during Vancouver’s post- World War 2 boom he started his own cartage firm and numerous lumber yards before focusing on expanding Northern Building Supply on the expansive East Kent Street site.

Northern is a “family” business in every sense of the word. Although an active participant in the business, Bert relies on his sons - Alex, Gord and John to oversee day-to-day operations. Many of Northern’s 40-plus employees have worked for the company for more then 20 years and it isn’t uncommon to see Bert’s grandchildren working in the yard or driving one of the forklifts.

Sitting on 3.2 hectares on East Kent Avenue just two blocks east of the Knight Street Bridge off S.W. Marine Drive - Northern has long been considered the leading supplier of home improvement supplies for Vancouver and the Lower Mainland.

On an Annual basis Northern sells over 5 million board feet of lumber - enough to build 350 to 400 average-sized homes.