World's biggest in alder

by Gage McKinney Brush Lumber Div. MacBcath Hardwood Co.

This month marks the l0th anniversary of the founding of Northwest Hardwoods Inc. of Portland, Or., the world's largest producer of alder, and one of the nation's biggest producers of kiln dried hardwoods.

Phenomenal growth has been the hallmark of Northwest's first decade. That growth resulted from

(1) a continuing determination to expand Northwest's kiln dried production and

(2) an aggressive marketing campaign that took "a weed" named alder and made it into a valued and trusted forest product.

Today, Northwest operates sawmills at Arlington and Centralia, Wa., which produce more than 50 million board feet annually. Alder comprises 9O% of the production; Western maple 10%. The firm began in 1967, however, with one mill sawing 300,000 feet per month.

An experienced lumberman, the late Everett Rake, and Eric Haessler, a Portland attorney, organized the company and purchased an antiquated stud mill at Arlington. They hired Arnold Curtis, a newcomer to the lumber business, with a keen sense of production methods, to rebuild the sawmill for alder production.

Curtis and his wife, Linda, lived alongside the mill for l8 months. During that time Curtis converted the circle stud mill into a double cut band mill and managed the production. By early 1969 rhe one mill was producing more than one million feet each month of kiln dried, surfaced hardwood.

Today, Curtis is president of the firm. He recalls, "Northwest Hardwoods started from day number one to produce the finest quality hardwood lumber on the West coast. We've come a long way from that first mill in 1967 which Produced random width, random length, and random thickness lumber.

In May, 1969, the firm Purchased Centralia Hardwood Co. thus adding another one-half million feet Per month to its kiln dried production. Jessie Schupp, owner of Centralia, stayed on to manage the mill and maintains his office there todaY.

Since 1969 kiln capacity has increased 285%; thin-kerf precision breakdown saws &abrasive planers have been added; and made other machinery innovations that have enabled production to increase and product lines to improve each year. More than 200 men are now employed in the two Washington mills.

Dramatic increases in production would have been meaningless, however, without an aggressive sales program to move that Production. That sales program shifted into high gear in July, 1969 when Dave Mc Cullam came aboard as sales manager.

"When we put our marketing program together", McCullam said, "the byword was 'consistency'. Our alder product had to be consistent in quality, supply, grade, kiln drYing and surfacing."

Northwest had already joined the National Hardwood Lumber Associ-

Story at a Glance

In 10 years Northwest Hardwoods has become the world's largest producer of alder strict quality control helPed transform alder's reputation in the world of hardwood; aggressive marketing moved it in the marketplace.

W00DED hills outside of Adington, Wa., backdrop this aerial view of one of the two company mills.

ation and committed itself to NHLA grading rules. Beyond that the firm hired Cal Fye, an NHLA grader for l5 years in Pennsylvania and New York, to assure accuracy in its grading. Before this time alder had been sold in lots of f 2 shop and better. Northwest was the first producer to consistently segregate their product inro #1, #2 shop and select and better.

'We wanted no misunderstandings about excess tallies or inconsistent grading," McCullam said, "so we began with a product that met or exceeded NHLA standards."

The company also established appearance standards of its own. All loads were double-end trimmed, properly edged, and neatly packaged into units. Tags that included the Northwest name, grade and tally were stapled onto each unit and the company's logo was imprinted on individual boards. In 1913, they began putting their logo on the side of each unit they shipped.

From the start alder was shipped on a net tally, and after a kiln drying tally that makes no addition for shrinkage. The NHLA now requires all of its members to use net tallies.

From 1969 to l97l Northwest hardwood conducted a nation-wide advertising carnpaign in furniture trade journals, lumber journals and woodworking magazines to promote PacificCoast alder. "We were doing the missionary work for the entire alder industry", McCullam remarked.

From 1972 to 1973 a second campaign emphasized the Northwest Hardwood logo. "By pronroting the advantages of alder and Pacific-coast maple through advertising we dramatically increased the market for these two woods", McCullam continued. "That was our biggest contribution to the alder industry as a whole." he concludes.

It is now one of the few alder manufacturers that solicits and sells a sizeable portion of its production to the Midwest and East Coast. One third of its production goes to such states as Texas, Pennyslvania, Virginia, N. Carolina. Tennessee. and Indiana.

Over 80% of production is sold directly to the ultimate user by the firm's own sales staff. "Our sales force is our "window on the market", says McCullam. "The fact that we sell our own products helps our mills respond to the needs of the user," he observes. Cliff Chulos and Fred Crabbe handle sales from the Portland office, while Lowell Dunham mans the Los Angeles sales office. the firm distributed "tally computers" which tell a buyer how many board feet are contained in a load of lumber of a given size; as well as publishing alder "fact sheets" which describe the properties of alder and compare it with 20 other hardwoods. Both "tally computers" and "fact sheets" are still available from Northwest Hardwoods, 1300 S.W. Fifth Ave., Portland, Or., 97201 or from MacBeath Hardwood Co., 2150 Oakdale Ave., San Francisco, Ca. 94124.

Northwest has also joined forces with MacBeath Hardwood Co. of Northern California and Utah, and is developing a program through which MacBeath represents Northwest's product to ltl buyers and small manufacturers and also to certain direct mill buyers. In another advertising campaign.