Feb 27 2009
Whole Log Lumber Company had a banner year in 2008 and is enjoying robust 2009 sales despite the economic despair that grips many American businesses. Last year, the company's sales surged nearly 50 percent.
The 25-year-old company offers a wide-range of authentic reclaimed and recycled woods including pine, maple, oak, fir, and even rare chestnut. The strength and stability of antique and reclaimed wood is generally superior to new growth materials, and recycled wood is more environmentally sustainable.
The company credits assistance from the North Carolina Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC) in helping jump-start the company's dramatic growth through business counseling and strategic planning.
In 2006, owners Jim and Loy Stowell began working in partnership with the SBTDC. After an initial strategic needs assessment of the company by the SBTDC, they set up a strategic planning retreat.
"The retreat was wonderful," said Loy Stowell. "It showed us how to identify our desires for the business and what we needed to do to get where we wanted to go. It provided a renewed synergy in the company by involving our management staff in the planning process."
Whole Log Lumber locates the best available antique wood flooring in woods such as heart pine, oak, maple and more. Whole Log Lumber supplies character wood floors and high quality pre-finished engineered flooring, as well as related wood flooring products. Reclaimed wood is Whole Log Lumber's specialty, and their custom building components have been produced from their own lumber mill on the Green River in Western North Carolina since 1984.