Tropical Forest Products Member Spotlight, 2019

The Story of a Man, a Kitchen Table, and a Dream

The kitchen table serves as more than just a place for family meals. It is the hub of the home — a place where important family conversations happen, where visiting friends gravitate to socialize, where projects, budgeting, and homework take place. And for Jordan Dery, the founder of Tropical Forest Products, the kitchen table is where his idea to start a lumber company came to fruition.

A native of Quebec, Canada, Jordan began his career in the hardwood lumber industry when he was just 20 years old. He graduated from the NHLA Inspector Training School in 2013, where he gained lifelong friends and developed skills that would one day propel him to start his own hardwood lumber business.

The journey to creating his business began in 2016 when Jordan took a three-month holiday to explore Asia. While visiting Indonesia, he toured a local sawmill and was inspired. Jordan recalls his moment of clarity, “I’d always loved the hardwood industry and the people in it. This is my passion! I should start my own lumber company.”

The team at Tropical Forest Products.

He immediately called his twin brother, Justin Dery, who was already in the hardwood lumber industry. As Jordan excitedly told Justin he was going to start his own lumber company, Justin was wary, exclaiming, “You’re crazy!” Justin knew that starting a lumber company from scratch would be a massive undertaking and wanted to protect Jordan from making a costly mistake, but his skepticism didn’t last long.

Jordan returned home just before Christmas, and by New Year’s Day 2017, his brand-new business was taking shape. Soon, his brother joined the company as its vice president, and their longtime friend, Jassi Jaskaran, signed on to handle sales & purchasing. The newly-created business was named “Tropical Forest Products,” and the center of operations was the kitchen table at their family home.

The first order of business was to join NHLA, which was instrumental in building strong relationships within the hardwood lumber industry. When Tropical Forest Products began, they didn’t have any credit, so they turned to their friends in the hardwood industry for help. These friends trusted his vision and allowed him to use their lumber yards and warehouses to build loads. The first loads sold by Tropical Forest Products weren’t backed by contracts. Instead, the deals consisted of a handshake and Jordan’s word.

By June 2017, Tropical Forest Products moved into its first warehouse, which was previously used to store old car parts. “The warehouse was completely disgusting,” said Jordan, “the entire building had to be gutted and completely remodeled before it could be used to house lumber. The first load at the new warehouse looked tiny, sitting all alone in the 30,000-square-foot goliath. It just looked like a ghost town.”

2017 was challenging, and Tropical Forest Products had many obstacles to overcome, including some of their customers declaring bankruptcy. Jordan laments, “It was devastating, but we all came together with the understanding that it would take a lot of hard work to make up for the money we’d lost. We had to put in long hours, hitting the phones all day every day, trying to get new customers. It was tough,

but we managed to double our goals in our first year.” It didn’t take long for their ghost town of a warehouse to become filled with lumber. In fact, Tropical Forest Products has grown so much that they will be moving into a bigger warehouse in November of 2019.

Jordan’s approach to managing the business revolves around two things: happy employees and satisfied customers. Jordan’s mantra is, “work at a job you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” He extolls the importance of employees spending time with their families, saying, “I let my team know their health and family should always come first. I really believe that. I want my employees to know their company supports them, that we trust them.”

The growth continues at Tropical Forest Products, as they proudly announce their recent merger with the Lumber Decking Company out of Miami. Jordan points out, “This merger provides a great opportunity for growth. The CEO of the Lumber Decking Company, Kris Kanagenthran, has been one of my greatest mentors since I began in the hardwood lumber industry. I know we need strong leadership to take us to the next level. I trust his leadership and share his vision.”

From its humble beginning of three men working at a kitchen table, Tropical Forest Products has matured into a business that employs an entire staff with clients worldwide. Instead of borrowing lumber yards and warehouses from friends, they now have their own. Jordan is proud to be a member of NHLA, acknowledging, “None of our success would have been possible if it weren’t for relationships we built through NHLA, our customers, and our suppliers. The friendships we built became the support we needed to get our feet off the ground. They wanted us to succeed. They set us up to triumph.”

“I’D ALWAYS LOVED THE HARDWOOD INDUSTRY AND THE PEOPLE IN IT. THIS IS MY PASSION! I SHOULD START MY OWN LUMBER COMPANY.”

— Jordan Dery