J&H owner George Lathram said a well-educated staff and loyal customer base has helped build relationships with top outdoor brands like The North Face, Patagonia, Osprey and, more recently, L.L Bean.
Surviving for half a century as a small business is no easy task, especially when multiple recessions, a global pandemic, rising inflation and other hurdles have a say. Just ask George Lathram and the team at J&H Lanmark.
First opened as an army surplus store on North Broadway in 1972, the store pivoted to selling workwear less than a decade later before switching things up again in 1993 when it moved to its current Moore Drive and transitioned its focus to outdoor and recreational gear.
While preparing to open that space, the owner at the time, John Hall, hired a 16-yearold George Lathram as a janitor and painter. After cutting his teeth at J&H, Lathram graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1999 and left J&H to work as an investment advisor. Lathram returned to J&H in 2006 when he bought the business from an ailing Hall, who passed away the following year.
In his 16 years as owner, Lathram has continued leading J&H to year-over-year sales growth. The only exception was during the pandemic year of 2020, when the store closed for a couple of months due to a state government mandate.
“This year has been a challenge, but we continue to grow over 2021,” Lathram said. “So many people were pent up in their homes over the pandemic that they were eager to get to enjoy the restorative nature of the outdoors once restrictions began being lifted. It’s led to a demand that our industry has never seen before.”
Helping to accelerate the business’ success in recent years has been its emerging e-commerce platform on its website, JHoutdoors.com. Recently relaunched under a new web host, the site experienced a spike in activity during the pandemic’s early stages. However, Lathram says that online sales are still consistently outpaced by brick-and-mortar sales, with the site accounting for about 7% of J&H’s total revenue.
“The support from central Kentucky continues to be our bread and butter,” said Lathram. “There’s a strong community of outdoorsy folks here who still enjoy the experience of genuine customer service and touching, feeling and trying on an item before they buy it, and we’re more than happy to offer that to them.”
J&H’s strong base in central Kentucky has come despite ongoing sta. ng shortages. Lathram says sta. ng isn’t as much of an issue as it was fi rst coming out of the pandemic, even though it’s still something to be mindful of. J&H currently employs between 20 and 25 people, roughly half of whom are college students.
“We’re in a much better place with our staffing now, but given that we’re approaching our busiest time of the year, we could use all the help we can get,” said Lathram, who noted that November and December on average generate nearly a quarter of J&H’s annual sales. “No matter the industry, wherever you look businesses have hiring signs up and are having to allocate part of their marketing budgets to attract prospective employees. It’s been a challenge for all of us.”
Despite the challenge presented, J&H employees have remained up to the task. Employing a knowledgeable and well-trained sta. has been a hallmark of J&H, in addition to carrying quality products, and none of those appear to be going out of style anytime soon. That focus on education and quality has garnered the attention of not only a loyal customer base but also brands and potential business partners, although that wasn’t always the case.
“Early on [after pivoting to outdoor gear], we experienced a lot of barriers to entry with brands like The North Face, Patagonia and Osprey, who other local retailers were already carrying,” Lathram said. “However, as our business and sales volume grew those brands began taking us more seriously.”
That attention went a step further earlier this fall when L.L. Bean made J&H one of just three independent retailers in the United States to carry its products, further solidifying the store’s reputation for customer service.
“We’re excited to partner with L.L. Bean and to see them working with small retailers to reach customers locally at a time when so many of their counterparts are instead focusing on direct online sales,” Lathram said. “Businesses like Nike have been doing just that, so it’s nice to see L.L. Bean is doing the opposite and going out of their way to support retailers like us. It’s an honor to work with and have exclusivity with a company like them that’s been around for over 100 years, helping pioneer their entry into the independent retail space.”
After a half-century in business, it’s apparent that J&H’s recipe for success has focused heavily on adapting to changing consumer needs and on relationships, whether their with customers, employees, retail buyers and brands.
“There is no doubt in my mind that our store has survived 50 years and continues to thrive because of all of the good people who have worked here that have had the genuine desire to assist our customers over this past half century,” Lathram said. “That genuine desire differentiates us from the big box stores and allows for a unique experience when you walk through our doors.”