Washington Supply Company: ‘It’s not a family-run business, but we’re like a family here’

By Linda Tuccio-Koonz

Washington Supply Company is under new ownership following a seamless transition, so it’s business as usual at this community staple, which has been going strong since 1893.

“We just want to continue the success the former owners have had,” says Jason Liebnitzky, of Trade Supply Group, the Manhattan-based partnership that took over in June. “Part of the allure was how it’s very customer-focused.”

The store sells everything people need to build and maintain a home. Employees know their customers, many of them personally, he says. “The current team has been so successful. We’re looking to stay with that.”

That team includes former co-owner Valerie Sedelnick of New Milford, who’s retiring this spring after 34 years. “It’s not a family-run business, but we’re like a family here,” she says.  

Sedelnick and four co-workers assumed ownership of Washington Supply Company in 2006. “Two retired and that left three of us. We stuck together.” 

Now that she and Jim Bate, of Cornwall, are at retirement age, they’re stepping down. (Jay Combs, formerly of Torrington, now of Arizona, already retired.) 

Sedelnick and Bate say their relationships with employees, vendors, and customers are what they’ll miss most. “We’ve had so much community support over the years. It’s just a wonderful feeling,” Bate says.

Trade Supply Group owns and operates eight building material businesses in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Liebnitzky says Washington Supply Company is a “very well-run, well-managed operation.”