From Leadership To Ownership Full service Pierce Timber Co. provides opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs.
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DavidAbbott
ased in the southeastern Georgia town of Blackshear, just a few miles northeast of Waycross, procurement company Pierce Timber Co., Inc., is somewhat unusual. “We’re probably one of the few wood suppliers left that has its own company logging operations,” owner-presidentCEO Hugh Thompson suspects. He calls Pierce a full service forestry company—buying, harvesting, hauling, site prepping and, via subcontractors, reforestation. “We have been blessed to have a group of quality contractors we’ve learned a lot from, and along the way we have picked up some company crews,” he says. Only it’s a little more complicated than that. The “company” crews are not, in fact, technically part of Pierce
Timber. Each of the harvesting units affiliated with one another and operating under the Pierce umbrella exists as a legally detached entity from Pierce Timber. Many of them are owned, at least in part, by Pierce employees— members of the management team. The crews were created through Pierce Timber and in effect function as captive crews for Pierce Timber because, like their owners, they are all part of the same team. Under the guidance of Thompson, 51, the management team includes Randy Dixon, 47; Carlos Thrift, 52; Brian Peacock, 43; Loran Tuten, 42; David Deloach, 60; Chad Nimmer, 38; and Josh Cave, 34. Most of them were hired after they completed forestry training at ABAC (Abraham Baldwin
Agricultural College in Tifton, Ga.). Peacock, an exception, had a military background. Everybody has multiple titles. Each forester has an assigned territory but all will cross those lines to help the others when needed. Thompson sees this as an advantage. It’s a kind of “all for one, one for all” philosophy—the priority is getting the job done. Nimmer concurs: “I may own a crew and Loran may own a crew, but if I can help him, I help him, and if he can help me, he helps me.” With overlapping duties and stakeholder status in the collective success of all, teamwork is undoubtedly the hallmark of the Pierce inner circle. Nimmer sums up Pierce Timber as “a bunch of good, hard-working, blue
Pierce-connected crews use a blend of machines from Caterpillar, John Deere, and Tigercat. 16
MARCH/APRIL 2015
TIMBER HARVESTING & WOOD FIBER OPERATIONS
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