Emporium Hardwoods: Right People Right Product

Emporium Hardwoods' 120-acre site below Emporium is impossible to miss from Route 120. The lumber that surrounds the mill is a staggering site. The business was featured in a recent edition of 'National Hardwood.'

(Editor's Note: The following story is excerpted from an article appearing in a recent edition of National Hardwood and reprinted with permission. It was written by Terry Miller)

Hardwood Lumber Manufacturing Inc. employs over 200 people across three locations, including Emporium Hardwoods. HLM has a keen focus on maintaining high standards, from selecting the right trees to delivery of the finished product desired by the customer.

Boasting a 120-acre mill site, with over 163,000 square feet of enclosed production space, Emporium's sawmill produces more than 20 million board feet of lumber each year. In addition to cherry and soft maple

production, the facility manufactures hard maple, red oak and ash.

"Sitting where we are, we have access to some of the best cherry in the world," said Bill Johns, chief forester at Emporium.

Emporium Hardwoods ships products coast-to-coast, to Canada and overseas to customers that include product end users, such as flooring producers, kitchen cabinet manufacturers and millwork and moulding plants, and to distributors and wholesalers. The company offers mixed trailer loads in a variety of species and thicknesses.

Logs are primarily procured within a 50- to 100-mile radius. The company is currently operating 14 contracted logging crews. Production is currently about 40 percent cherry, 40 percent soft maple, 15 percent hard maple and a smaller quantity of ash.

Johns said that ideal weather conditions, which include a short growing season, contribute to the "very tight grain quality lumber."

Sales are handled by Randy Flament, who has worked for the company for over 25 years, and Sam Barkley, who recently joined the team.

Jared Fowler, general manager at Emporium, said recent equipment upgrades have improved yields and production. Among the investments: a new drop saw trimmer, edger and headsaw, lumber stacker, carriage drive and ring debarker.

The plant has about 600,000 board feet of kiln capacity and dries about 12 million board feet per year.