The NHLA publishes the hardwood lumber grading guide that has become the industry standard, trains lumber inspectors, and offers lumber grading and quality control services. While the association does not maintain state or local chapters, it recently joined forces with other hardwood groups in a broad coalition to promote common interests. These include sustainability and prudent forest management, notes Director of Marketing and Communications Renee Hornsby.

Founded in 1898 and headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, the NHLA represents the entire hardwood supply chain in the U.S. and Canada. Members range from Amish enterprises that shun mechanization to high-tech lumber firms that are “completely automated. We serve the entire diversified hardwood lumber industry,” she says.

Common hardwoods include red and white oak, walnut, hickory and maple. “In grade school language, most hardwood trees lose their leaves in the fall. When you go by and see barren trees with their leaves gone, those are hardwoods. There are hundreds of species of hardwoods.” Such trees have a myriad of uses.

“For consumers, I explain that hardwoods are usually the things in the home that you can see. Hardwoods are not inside the wall; that is softwood. The framing of the home does not involve hardwoods. The hardwoods are visible in the windows, the doors, the moldings, the millwork, the staircase, the floor, the cabinets, the furniture,” says Hornsby.

Industrial hardwood products include pallets, truck bed liners and hardwood crane mats. By-products from sawing can be made into pet bedding, pellets for grills, paper goods, or fuel for sawmill kilns.

The association works closely with a group called the Hardwood Federation to lobby legislators for favorable regulations. COVID put a damper on in-person Washington, DC fly-in visits, so advocacy work has largely been conducted by other means. Unlike many trade associations, the NHLA represents more than just the interests of its members.

“We are also here to help anybody who is involved with the hardwood lumber industry. If they call on us, we are here to help. We are here to educate. We are here as a whole industry supporter,” Hornsby says.

In addition to the above tasks, the association tries to enlighten lawmakers and the public about the benefits of hardwood.

“There is a blanket misconception that using wood is bad. In fact, using wood is part of the carbon climate change answer. When you cut the tree and turn it into a product, it stores the carbon. If the tree is left to rot, all the carbon it has been absorbing gets released back into the atmosphere. So, it is better to be proactively managing the forests,” says Hornsby, noting that managing the forest removes diseased, undesirable trees, lowers the risk of fire and allows the younger trees to grow and mature.

Sustainability, she is quick to add, is a key component of proper forest management. Removing every available hardwood tree for the sake of short-term profit would be a recipe for disaster.

“You manage the forest because you want it to last another hundred years. We would all be out of a job and nobody would have anything if we cut it all down,” she explains. “We are good stewards of the forest. Hardwoods are not a crop that is grown like a pine. In the United States, most hardwood comes from individual landowners, and most of those landowners own fifty acres or less.”

Hardwoods naturally spread seeds which grow into new trees. When they mature, hardwoods are typically removed in a ‘select harvest’ process in which loggers or harvesters mark individual trees then cut them down. The largest trees usually go first.

“If you don’t take the big trees out, then the smaller trees can’t get enough sunlight, and the canopy gets too big. So [big trees] will be marked, then the logger will come in and individually take those out and leave the ones that still need to grow,” Hornsby explains.

Felled trees are generally sold to sawmills. Some sawmills own property where trees are grown and maintain loggers on staff, while other mills buy logs from independent operators. Once in the sawmill, logs are divided by species and diameter before being debarked and cut. Cut lumber is graded, sorted and stacked, and shipped to be transformed into end products.

The hardwood lumber industry used to be something of a free-for-all, with little structure or uniformity, says Hornsby. In the late 1890s, a group of lumbermen met in Chicago to bring some badly needed order to the sector. From this gathering, the NHLA was born. One of the association’s first projects was to develop a standardized grading system for hardwood lumber. Published in a guide called the NHLA Rules for the Measurement & Inspection of Hardwood & Cypress, this grading system brought consistency and stability to the hardwood lumber market.

Now called NHLA Hardwood Grading Rules, the guide is currently published in French, Spanish, Mandarin, and English to facilitate international sales. The guide is distributed to all NHLA members and its contents are reviewed every four years. New rule proposals are voted on by the membership. If accepted, new rules became part of the standards and the foundation of “the entire hardwood lumber industry,” says Hornsby.

Creating rules was one thing; implementing them was another matter. In the past, a team of National Inspectors were trained by and worked for NHLA, and performed all the lumber grading and inspections for hardwood companies. In 1948, to meet the demand for trained and knowledgable lumber graders, the association opened the NHLA Inspector Training School. The school was based in Memphis, then the “hardwood capital of the world,” according to Hornsby.

Memphis once sported dozens of sawmills within its municipal boundaries. The association moved its headquarters from Chicago to Memphis in the late 1970s, even as the city’s sawmill business declined. The training school has also remained in Memphis.

“We have graduated more than 7,500 people since we started the program. We have people who have come from all over the world,” states Hornsby.

NHLA National Inspectors have the authority to determine if lumber that is manufactured, bought, or sold is ‘on grade.’ The NHLA National Inspectors are positioned throughout the U.S. and Canada and are available globally. They help companies educate employees on the rules, conduct audits of processes and procedures and generally are available to help companies with any hardwood lumber related issues. They also manage the Association’s numerous certification programs.

Should a dispute arise and a lumber shipment appear to be off-grade, the association can intervene if called upon. It retains “a chief inspector who handles dispute claims. He will review the dispute, evaluate the product and grade, and present his finidings. His word is final,” Hornsby says.

The association also offers quality control services. Member companies can arrange for a NHLA National Inspector to review their manufacuturing processes and determine how efficient operations are. After visiting the premises, conducting extensive tests and consulting with company staff, the Inspector will issue a report with suggestions on new processes or equipment to boost profits and reduce waste.

Association members receive Hardwood Matters magazine which features member profiles, economic forecasts, and articles about industry issues and sector trends. The NHLA also maintains a blog, has a strong social media presence, and hosts an annual convention. The next conference is scheduled for September 21–23 in Cleveland, Ohio. After COVID spread in March 2020, the association developed a webinar series for members.

To be sure, COVID hit the lumber supply chain hard. Lumber prices have been wildly fluctuating, and this is compounded by driver shortages and other supply chain issues, as in many industries. “I think we’re looking at another year of supply chain disruption before it all settles back to normal,” Hornsby says.

Not counting COVID, she lists labor as the biggest challenge facing the hardwood sector. Many sawmills are based in rural locales with low population densities. Such areas lack a large pool of potential candidates for hire. This situation has been compounded by another development; with the economy returning to life, unemployment has dipped in many regions, meaning fewer people are looking for work.

To address this issue, the NHLA actively promotes career opportunities within the hardwood sector and supports programs designed to train skilled workers or establish apprenticeships. The growth of technology within the sector is also opening new career paths.

“A lot of people are thinking, ‘How can we automate some of these positions?’ With automation comes another skilled workforce set, because you need someone who understands automation, who can program the new equipment and can keep it online,” she states.

Going forward, the NHLA is excited to be part of the Real American Hardwood Coalition, a voluntary, industry-wide organization made up of hardwood associations and individual companies. Established in 2019, the coalition wants to present a united front to boost sales, promote research, and develop products. The coalition also hopes to “educate consumers and raise public awareness about the benefits of Real American Hardwood products,” according to its website.

“It’s a collective group who are passionate about spreading the sustainable message of hardwoods and increasing the consumption of hardwoods instead of replacement products. We would rather see the use of real hardwood than a plastic molding piece or bamboo flooring. We want consumers to be aware of the positive attributes of real hardwoods and the sustainable practices of the industry. That’s why the program exists,” states Hornsby. She believes that the coalition is “the biggest thing that’s going to change the association and change the industry over the next five years.”

The post America’s Oldest and Largest Hardwood Trade Group Looks to the Future<p class="company">National Hardwood Lumber Association</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

The company traces its roots back to 1968 and a decision by insurance agent Rabun Beasley to try his hand at something new. That year, he and his wife Jo Claxton Beasley launched an enterprise that eventually grew into what is today known as the Beasley Group. Darrell Beasley, son of Rabun and Jo, currently serves as President and Chief Executive officer and many other members of the family actively participate in the management of the company.

“The Beasley Group employs about 1,500 employees here in the Hazlehurst area in either wholly or partially owned operations within the organization,” stated Business Development Manager Linwood Truitt. “This makes the company one of the largest employers for this part of the state.”

Beasley Forest Products offers premium hardwood grade lumber as well as temporary access mats, pallet lumber, switch/crossties and residuals. Truitt added, “the species we focus on are maple, hickory, red and white oak, ash, mixed hardwood, poplar and cypress. This is sold either green, kiln-dried or heat treated.” The company also offers southern yellow pine products.

As Beasley Forest Products approaches its twenty-fifth anniversary, the company is poised for the future, thanks in part to the recent investment in its new upgraded and optimized equipment. “This equipment has allowed us to work safer, with higher quality and productivity,” states Truitt. “We just built a multi-million-dollar sawmill that is optimized throughout each step of the process, including an automated hardwood grader – requiring very little hands-on manual labor. Automation and optimization are a big deal,” he emphasized.

These upgrades have allowed Beasley Forest to significantly increase its board footage, improving efficiencies, yields and overall cost. At the same time, due to the increase volume, the company has been able to add more jobs to handle the workload – “not only more jobs, but more desirable jobs requiring a different skill set than in traditional sawmills due to the automated and optimized new equipment,” said Truitt.

“Beasley Forest maintains a marketing strategy based on diversification and this new sawmill allows us to be flexible in what we produce,” said Truitt. He explained that as the market changes, the mill can adapt to meet the change and to levelize the natural ebbs and flow of the business.

The company is service-oriented and strives to meet every customer’s need both in domestically and export markets. It not only supplies the North American market (including Canada and Mexico), but also exports overseas. China, Vietnam and Europe are major global regions that utilize Beasley products. Truitt estimates that approximately 80 percent of hardwood grade lumber is exported.

Emphasis is placed on sustainability and stewardship for procurement and manufacturing. Land stewardship is about promoting reforestation, soil conservation, biological diversity, natural wildlife and aquatic habitat. While Beasley obtains much of its hardwood from Georgia, the company has an extended wood basket. “We reach out to other states such as South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama with our logging crews – either trucking back to the mill or utilizing the railroad,” Truitt explained.

“Our loggers and foresters are trained in the Master Timber Harvesting Program and also utilize practically every part of the log, from bark to lumber,” he emphasized. “We follow these standards to ensure the sustainability of forest products for our future generations.”

For all this impressive growth, the company officials have strived to maintain a common touch and friendly working environment that is focused on the customer, to build longstanding relationships, stated Truitt. “As we grow, we are continuously on the lookout for employees that are dedicated team players. Though experience is helpful, it is not absolutely necessary – what is most important is attracting and retaining highly motivated individuals with good work ethics,” he said.

In closing, Truitt stated that the goal was to “continue to service our customers while growing our business and maintaining focus on our employees and the communities in which we operate. By remaining focused on our business plans, we are confident that Beasley Forest Products will be serving the industry for generations to come,” he stated.

The post Family-Owned Business, Sawmill Success<p class="company">Beasley Forest Products</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

“From the beginning, sawing just 700,000 board feet per year with just sixteen employees, one location, and one company, to today, sawing 15,000,000 board feet per year with 160 employees, five locations and eight companies, you can certainly see the growth,” states Rhonda Kendrick, who owns the firm with husband Tim Kendrick.

The KFP sawmill—the largest in Iowa—offers walnut, red and white oak, hard and soft maple, red and grey elm, cherry, ash, basswood, and hickory, among other varieties of lumber, by products, and finished goods from signs and cabinets to industrial products such as railroad ties. Products are exported to over two dozen countries in Asia, Europe, and elsewhere.

Services, from logging to hauling, sawing, grading, debarking, steaming, and drying, are performed by KFP. The company harvests logs, hauls them to its yard, “then we send them into our mill, where they are sawed down—or unassembled—and boards are created, along with railroad ties and blocking or cants for pallets. Boards are sorted by quality, and wood waste is turned into mulch, then colored and bagged. Sawdust is used to generate electricity for our plant,” she says.

Kendrick Forest Products owns over 1,200 acres of land for tree harvesting and is the only forest products company in Iowa with its own lumber mill, logging, and trucking crews. While it purchases some trees from outside companies, all logs are from within a one-hundred-mile radius of its sawmill whenever possible.

“When you locally source the logs, you have a better chance of uniformity in the lumber. If we were buying logs from another region, their growing seasons are a little different than ours; their color is different; their soil is different. So, if we stick to our area, our customers are assured of getting similar quality. Although no two boards are the same, they’re going to be similar.”

The company’s roots extend to the 1950s when Don Kendrick, Senior (Tim’s father) launched a sawing and logging business in Edgewood. He ran his sawmill until the early 1970s, when he sold it. Unfortunately, the mill shut down within a few years of the sale, a devastating blow to the local community.

The shuttered mill was purchased by Tim and his brother in 1983. Tim’s brother soon exited the business but Rhonda entered, and much work ensued. With Don Kendrick, Senior guiding them, Tim, Rhonda, and their small staff reinvigorated the sawmill. Soon, it was ready to expand.

“The first expansion came in the form of dry kilns in 1987. More were added in 1991. In 2001, a cabinet company was purchased from a retiring customer. That year was also the start of a major $5 million expansion in the sawmill operation,” Rhonda recalls.

Additional equipment, such as line-bar resaws, headsaws, board edgers, and a de-barker machine, was also acquired as part of the expansion. New facilities were opened, including a space devoted to de-barking. The company installed biomass and steam turbine systems that burned sawdust to generate electricity for its operations.

“A lot of thought was given to the expansion. Some of our peers had turnkey operations put in at a higher cost. Our facility was designed at our kitchen table with paper and pencils using the expertise of our key staff. We went through a lot of pizza and beer working those plans up, but we believe our mill is one of the more efficient mills in the U.S. for our size,” she says.

The cabinetmaking company acquired in 2001 was moved to Edgewood. Forever Cabinets by Kendrick proved to be a hit. Today, cabinets are mostly sold to local consumers, although it has shipped its wares to multiple states.

“We are different than most manufacturers. Our designers work directly with the customer and our shop. When we build our cabinets, we bring in lumber from our mill, plywood from U.S. suppliers, hinges, drawer slides, paint, and varnish, then we manufacture and build cabinets,” says Rhonda.

Other new businesses have been launched over the past five years. A mulch coloring and bagging line was also added, as was Kendrick Home which prints designs on wooden signs to be sold on a wholesale basis to stores across the country, while custom photo division Shimlee allows customers to upload images or create custom sayings and designs which Shimlee then prints on wood. The company name is derived from shim board, the waste material produced during sawing. Kendrick also operates a retail wing, selling cabinets, home décor, and other company wares. In 2021, KFP expanded again by adding an additional sawmill and dry kilns, and updating its current dry lumber line with the addition of a new building and new equipment to better serve the growing needs of its customers.

The firm adheres to lean manufacturing and continuous improvement principles. KFP uses a Kanban system to simplify parts purchasing, among other tasks. In a Kanban system, work-in-progress is tracked on a board or computer to maintain a high-level of transparency and communication about workflows.

It also performs ‘clean sweeps’ in which staff go through areas looking for ways to improve operations and keeps the sawmill tidy and orderly. Continuous improvement initiatives have been implemented to enhance productivity and eliminate bottlenecks. When bottlenecks occur, they are closely analyzed with a view to resolving the issue and preventing such problems from recurring.

Sustainability is another key tenet. To this end, Kendrick Forest Products has a sustainability verification certificate from the National Hardwood Lumber Association (NHLA).

“I would like to think we’re the kind of people that keep the environment at the forefront of our minds, but I also have four kids, and they have kids. If we want to continue in this business, we’d better take care of our resources or there will be none for them to harvest. The general public may think this means protecting the trees by not harvesting them, but it means the opposite. When you sustainably harvest timber like we do, it improves the health of the surrounding trees and other life and ensures the regrowth for new ones,” Rhonda says.

Ownership remains family-based, with all four adult children of Rhonda and Tim—along with some of their spouses—working for the company

Worker safety is paramount, and this is an important consideration in a business built around tall trees and sharp blades. Kendrick loggers are fully insured and required to take Forest Industry Safety & Training Alliance (FISTA) instruction. Based in Wisconsin, FISTA is a non-profit group dedicated to safety training and education for the forestry sector. In addition to FISTA training, logging and sawing equipment is kept clean and well-maintained.

“I don’t think we do anything extraordinary, but our ‘experience mod’ speaks for itself. We have a negative experience mod on worker’s compensation insurance because we’ve been so safe,” she says, referring to the experience modification factor, a measure of company safety.

For all its success, the company is faced with challenges, one of the most recent being the advent of COVID-19 in March 2020.

“COVID had an impact on everyone’s lives in one way or another. We lost several friends, relatives, and colleagues. We try to take the negatives and somehow make it positive. Our store was closed for about six weeks, so we had to be creative and upped our game to create more online sales. Although our retail sales took a strong dip, the online sales continue today,” Rhonda states.

Accommodations were made to protect employees and mitigation efforts were implemented based on recommendations, employee safety, and risk factors in their area. Greater emphasis was put on cross-training, so if a worker was absent due to illness, their position could be covered until they returned.

Taking care of staff during the COVID crisis exemplified KFP’s community-minded spirit. This same community ethos was behind the decision to open the company to guided tours in 2010. Running from spring to fall and attracting roughly 1,200 visitors a year, these tours serve an important function beyond giving the public an inside look at Kendrick’s operations.

“It’s important to us that people understand how carefully our resource is used, how knowledgeable our staff must be, and how much we love our industry,” Rhonda says.

Rhonda and Tim also believe in being open and available to staff, which is one reason they chose to live near their business.

“We’re very close with our employees and being next door… I think that they feel a little bit more committed knowing that we’re so committed to them,” she says.

The current plan is to consolidate growth while maintaining a customer-centric approach.

“As for our future, with all the expansions we have done, I expect, over the next few years, we will focus on our lean manufacturing and make sure we do not fall out of step with our core principles and practices. We will continue to be customer-driven and look to manufacture products that will solve problems for customers. That could be in the form of selecting the right quality of board for a manufacturer, a cabinet design for a customer, or product line for Kendrick Home,” states Rhonda.

The post From Logs to Cabinets and Beyond – A Family-Owned Success Story<p class="company">Kendrick Forest Products (KFP)</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Specializing in quartersawn hardwood, Frank Miller Lumber emphasizes sustainability and servant leadership. The company maintains a strong bond with employees who receive generous benefits including a unique workplace chaplaincy service.

Operations are based at a pair of plants situated on twenty acres of land in Union City. Plant One features: twenty kilns, a pair of boilers, three pre-dryers, an air-dry area, offices, and a grading station. Plant Two features: a sawmill, lumber preparing station, facilities for warehousing and shipping, more offices, and a retail store. Aside from some administrative tasks, all company services are self-performed.

“We sell to other manufacturers or distributors. Our manufacturers are either flooring, furniture, or cabinetry/millwork companies. We sell both to commercial and residential customers. Our distribution network typically sells to these same types of customers but on a smaller scale,” explains Chief Executive Officer and President, Steve James.

Frank Miller Lumber is partial to producing quartersawn red and white oak. Quartersawn lumber has several advantages, but is more expensive as it is more labor-intensive to mill. To create this type of lumber, the log is first sawn into quarters. One of the two re-saws slice alternating faces of the quartered log from the inside out while turning it end-for-end on a carousel between each pass through the saw. This creates boards with a straight grain in which the growth rings of the tree are 45 – 90 degrees to the face of the board. Its distinctive appearance makes it desirable to designers, architects, and custom furniture makers.

The company produces quartersawn hard maple and cherry, albeit on a more limited basis. The company has provided lumber for high-profile projects such as the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, San Francisco City Hall, and the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City.

“We are very proud to have supplied the beautiful quartersawn red oak used in the Kauffman Center. It showcases the beauty of red oak. Red oak is often overlooked for the more popular white oak. Red oak makes up nearly thirty-five percent of our forests and is a very cost-effective alternative to white oak,” states James.

The company’s 18,000-square-foot retail outlet displays a selection of plainsawn and quartersawn lumber, plywood, and exotic wood. Retail customers are generally small manufacturers in the cabinetry, flooring, millwork, and furniture sectors who purchase less than 3,000 board feet per order.

“Frank Miller Lumber achieved Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification in 2009 and is an enthusiastic proponent of sustainability. FSC certification entails purchasing and harvesting lumber from sustainable sources. It uses every part of each log it saws, either for lumber or commercial by-products. The focus on environmental protection and zero waste makes good economic sense,” says James.

“Without sustaining our forests, we don’t have a business. FSC traces the log from where it was cut down to when it becomes an end product. As an industry, we have a bad reputation, [thanks] to decisions from people before us to devastate forests and do massive clear cuts. We want to make sure the public knows we are a company that takes forest management seriously so that American hardwoods can be around for generations to come,” James notes.

It is a logical, long-term view for a company that can trace its heritage to 1903 when John Miller acquired a lumber mill in a rural region. The company expanded, and when John Miller died, his son, Frank Miller took over, and it acquired its current name. Miller family members and their spouses continue to work for the company today.

The enduring success of Frank Miller Lumber can be attributed to several factors, the strategic location being among them. The operation is situated near “the transportation intersection of America,” as the company website puts it. Ports on the West, East, and Gulf Coasts can be reached in two days traveling time from the sawmill, which is also located near air, rail, and road hubs.

“All of our lumber goes out of here on trucks. Fifteen to twenty percent go into containers that are shipped overseas but leave on chassis, typically via railway systems that ship to the East Coast. Most of the remaining lumber is either loaded onto flatbeds or curtain-side trailers. We are 30 minutes north of I-70 and 45 minutes west of I-75,” explains James.

High standards are a key to the business’ success. A quality control manager randomly samples wood bundles daily then compiles a monthly report which is reviewed by the entire management team. An executive director of operations is responsible for ensuring that stringent standards are met.

The company retains a safety manager who regularly meets with staff, runs training, and tabulates safety-related data. The leadership team conducts monthly safety tours to interact with workers and address safety concerns.

“We are very family and community oriented. We take care of our employees. We are very philanthropic in our community, with our money and time,” James says of the company’s longevity.

He sits on the board of Randolph County United, a community organization promoting local economic development and tourism, among other activities. He is involved in area internship programs designed to prepare students for the workforce. “We feel it’s important to invest back into the community that has supported us for more than a century,” James states.

The company belongs to several trade organizations, including the National Hardwood Lumber Association (NHLA), the Hardwood Manufacturers Association (HMA), the Indiana Hardwood Lumbermen’s Association (IHLA), and the Hardwood Federation. These associations keep members abreast of industry trends and “educate non-members on how we help the sustainability of hardwood forests,” says James.

Frank Miller Lumber offers its employees’ health benefits and a 401(k) plan with matching contributions. The workforce is guided by servant leadership principles. “We are a family-owned business, and we treat our employees like they are family. We believe in servant leadership. I am a John-Maxwell-certified trainer, speaker, and coach, and we take the [servant leadership] philosophy all the way through the company,” states James.

“Servant leadership means serving those around me. I serve the owners; I serve my staff; I serve my local community. I give the folks around me encouragement, give them the tools to make them better,” James continues.

John Maxwell is a former small-town Ohio church pastor turned leadership guru and bestselling author whose books include The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, The 5 Levels of Leadership, and Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn. James has shared Maxwell’s leadership insights at presentations to Frank Miller staff and outside firms.

The company has arranged for non-denominational workplace chaplains to visit its facilities and chat with employees who wish to engage. According to James, this initiative is conducted in a relaxed manner, with a focus on communication, not proselytizing.

Frank Miller Lumber’s special relationship with its employees has proven beneficial for both workplace morale and the bottom line.

“We have done a great job treating our employees with dignity and respect. We have lunch days once a month, and we give out gift cards for any action that goes above and beyond what is expected,” James says.

In the same spirit, Frank Miller Lumber took a comprehensive, cautious approach to keep its workers safe when COVID struck in 2020. As an essential service, the company did not have to close. Revenues were protected thanks to a forgivable Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). The company implemented Centers for Disease Control (CDC) social distancing guidelines and enhanced cleaning efforts. Anyone who got sick was sent home to recover. Before returning to work, they had to either show a negative COVID test result or spend a required amount of time in quarantine. The COVID virus “has not had a major impact on us,” James notes.

The company does face some non-COVID-related challenges (or opportunities, as James prefers to call them). He points to the bourbon industry, which prefers white oak over red oak, as the latter is too porous to use for storage.

“Our biggest opportunity is to promote red oak,” states James. “We need to promote red oak as a substitute to white oak. There is a stigma in the United States that red oak is undesirable because of its color. We need to change the mindset.”

Oak issues aside, the future looks extremely bright. In addition to enhancing existing lumber operations, there is talk at Frank Miller about launching a professional leadership training service for other firms.

When I asked James where he envisions the company to be in five years, he replied, “the same but better. Our core products are why we are still in business after 118 years. We need to get our production levels up and install more technology. We need to be a little more diverse in our offerings but not a lot. We would like to get our professional services off the ground and offer more value for our customers.”

The post A Sawmill Guided by Servant Leadership Principles<p class="company">Frank Miller Lumber</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.