ROLLING OUT: A line of trucks carries Matheus Lumber ...Matheus lumbers through recessions by...
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Reprinted for web use with permission from the Puget Sound Business Journal. ©2009, all rights reserved. Reprinted by Scoop ReprintSource 1-800-767-3263. JUNE 19-25, 2009 Matheus lumbers through recessions by expanding By STEVE WILHELM STAFF WRITER MATHEUS LUMBER CO. INC. Founded: 1932 Founder: Charles William Matheus Location: Woodinville 2008 revenue: $88.3M Advice: “There’s no way to recession-proof your business. One of the few things you can do to minimize recession is not to overex- tend your company in the good times, and save a little bit of money. You should manage your business as if there was a recession all the time.” — Gary Powell, president ROLLING OUT: A line of trucks carries Matheus Lumber products. Were it not for its success supplying building materials for the Grand Coulee Dam in the depths of the Great Depression, Matheus Lumber Co. Inc. would not be the company it is today. Then headquartered in Seattle, the company sup- plied tons of lumber used by the Public Works Admin- istration to build the forms for most of the monumen- tal concrete pours that made up the dam. Today, in the midst of another economic downturn, Matheus retains its vitality just because it retains the busi- ness model — sell- ing to big compa- nies doing big jobs — it established 77 years ago. If a person walks into the company’s 5-acre headquar- ters lumberyard in Woodinville looking for a few two-by-fours, “We’d probably say no,” said company President Gary Powell. As he explains his company on a Monday morning in his Woodinville office, a procession of large trucks, each laden with huge stacks of lumber and concrete- grade plywood, rumble out of the yard heading for construction sites around the region. “That is one of our businesses, supplying concrete forms, panels and lumber, to the major concrete jobs,” Powell said. “You cannot believe the amount of timber and panels that goes into those kind of jobs.” While Matheus’ business is down about 20 percent in the recession, from $88.3 million in 2008 revenues, Powell said his company is doing far better than yards that specialize in supplying the home-building market. In fact Matheus is utilizing the down economy to expand, and on April 15 opened its newest distribu- tion center, in San Marcos, Texas. Matheus made the expansion by acquiring Bison Forest Products, an existing distributor “that mirrors Matheus exactly,” Powell said. Matheus’ other facilities are in Vancouver and Ellensburg, Wash., and Idaho. And the company is now actively bidding to supply some of the major “shovel ready” infrastruc- ture jobs that are being funded through the federal stimulus package. “With the new stimulus package, highway widening, bridges, overpasses, all requiring concrete forms and timbers, those are the kind of things Matheus would be looking at and supplying,” Powell said. “The stim- ulus package is starting to take hold now, the contracts are coming out and we’re bidding for them. As it goes forward in the next four to five months, Matheus will get our share.” Matheus’ focus on supplying wood for the industrial construction market has helped the company develop a unique skill base, said Joe Arena, vice president of U.S. sales and a principal at Westlam Industries Ltd., in Vancouver, B.C. Matheus is the sole Washington supplier for Westlam’s line of plywood for concrete forms, Arena said. He added that Westlam offers such a variety of products, tailored for specific needs, that very devel- oped understanding is needed to sell them. “The reason they’re in a business for a hundred years is they provide customers with the product that’s going to work for the intended job,” he said. “They’re a responsible supplier, responsible in that they pick products that work; they know what they’re buying and they know what they’re selling.” Now in its third generation of ownership, Matheus has always avoided becoming a sawmill, focusing instead on the needs of customers, and tapping the production of a variety of sawmills to do that. It’s only since 1986 that Matheus has even had a lumberyard of its own, a step the company de- cided to take as the number of sawmills declined in Washington. Fewer sawmills meant more specialization for each of them, and Matheus executives decided they had to build their own inventory to guarantee to regular customers they’d never be caught short of a needed product. Prior to 1986 there were 1,000 to 1,500 sawmills in the region, and Matheus could more dependably find a mill that could cut and ship to order on short notice, Powell said. Now, the company deals with just 150 mills across the United States, Powell said. It makes about one quarter of its deliveries directly from the mills, rather than from its own yards. At the core of the company’s customer service is a version of just-in-time inventory. Construction companies don’t store materials on job sites; they depend on suppliers to bring them what they need every day. “Our story has pretty much always been the same,” Powell said. “Our business philosophy is customer service and trying to deliver these products on a timely basis, which can get rather difficult. There’s so many people and traffic, it can be a real chore to get under that crane at 11 a.m. sometimes.” [email protected] | 206.876.5427 MATHEUS LUMBER PHOTO
Transcript of ROLLING OUT: A line of trucks carries Matheus Lumber ...Matheus lumbers through recessions by...
Reprinted for web use with permission from the Puget Sound Business Journal. ©2009, all rights reserved. Reprinted by Scoop ReprintSource 1-800-767-3263.
JUNE 19-25, 2009
Matheus lumbers through recessions by expandingBy STEVE WILHELM
STAFF WRITER
MATHEUS LUMBER CO. INC.
Founded: 1932
Founder: Charles William Matheus
Location: Woodinville
2008 revenue: $88.3M
Advice: “There’s no way to recession-proof your business. One of the few things you can do to minimize recession is not to overex-tend your company in the good times, and save a little bit of money. You should manage your business as if there was a recession all the time.”
— Gary Powell, president
ROLLING OUT: A line of trucks carries Matheus Lumber products.
Were it not for its success supplying building materials for the Grand Coulee Dam in the depths of the Great Depression, Matheus Lumber Co. Inc. would not be the company it is today.
Then headquartered in Seattle, the company sup-plied tons of lumber used by the Public Works Admin-istration to build the forms for most of the monumen-tal concrete pours that made up the dam.
Today, in the midst of another economic downturn, Matheus retains its vitality just because it retains the busi-ness model — sell-ing to big compa-nies doing big jobs — it established 77 years ago.
If a person walks into the company’s 5-acre headquar-ters lumberyard
in Woodinville looking for a few two-by-fours, “We’d probably say no,” said company President Gary Powell.
As he explains his company on a Monday morning in his Woodinville office, a procession of large trucks, each laden with huge stacks of lumber and concrete-grade plywood, rumble out of the yard heading for construction sites around the region.
“That is one of our businesses, supplying concrete forms, panels and lumber, to the major concrete jobs,” Powell said. “You cannot believe the amount of timber and panels that goes into those kind of jobs.”
While Matheus’ business is down about 20 percent in the recession, from $88.3 million in 2008 revenues, Powell said his company is doing far better than
yards that specialize in supplying the home-building market.
In fact Matheus is utilizing the down economy to expand, and on April 15 opened its newest distribu-tion center, in San Marcos, Texas. Matheus made the expansion by acquiring Bison Forest Products, an existing distributor “that mirrors Matheus exactly,” Powell said.
Matheus’ other facilities are in Vancouver and Ellensburg, Wash., and Idaho.
And the company is now actively bidding to supply some of the major “shovel ready” infrastruc-ture jobs that are being funded through the federal stimulus package.
“With the new stimulus package, highway widening, bridges, overpasses, all requiring concrete forms and timbers, those are the kind of things Matheus would be looking at and supplying,” Powell said. “The stim-ulus package is starting to take hold now, the contracts are coming out and we’re bidding for them. As it goes forward in the next four to five months, Matheus will get our share.”
Matheus’ focus on supplying wood for the industrial construction market has helped the company develop a unique skill base, said Joe Arena, vice president of U.S. sales and a principal at Westlam Industries Ltd., in Vancouver, B.C.
Matheus is the sole Washington supplier for Westlam’s line of plywood for concrete forms, Arena said. He added that Westlam offers such a variety of products, tailored for specific needs, that very devel-oped understanding is needed to sell them.
“The reason they’re in a business for a hundred years is they provide customers with the product that’s going to work for the intended job,” he said. “They’re a responsible supplier, responsible in that they pick
products that work; they know what they’re buying and they know what they’re selling.”
Now in its third generation of ownership, Matheus has always avoided becoming a sawmill, focusing instead on the needs of customers, and tapping the production of a variety of sawmills to do that.
It’s only since 1986 that Matheus has even had a lumberyard of its own, a step the company de-cided to take as the number of sawmills declined in Washington.
Fewer sawmills meant more specialization for each of them, and Matheus executives decided they had to build their own inventory to guarantee to regular customers they’d never be caught short of a needed product.
Prior to 1986 there were 1,000 to 1,500 sawmills in the region, and Matheus could more dependably find a mill that could cut and ship to order on short notice, Powell said.
Now, the company deals with just 150 mills across the United States, Powell said. It makes about one quarter of its deliveries directly from the mills, rather than from its own yards.
At the core of the company’s customer service is a version of just-in-time inventory.
Construction companies don’t store materials on job sites; they depend on suppliers to bring them what they need every day.
“Our story has pretty much always been the same,” Powell said. “Our business philosophy is customer service and trying to deliver these products on a timely basis, which can get rather difficult. There’s so many people and traffic, it can be a real chore to get under that crane at 11 a.m. sometimes.”
[email protected] | 206.876.5427
MATHEUS LUMBER PHOTO
PUGET SOUND BUSINESS JOURNAL JUNE 19-25, 2009 | 35PRIVATE COMPANIES
By STEVE WILHELMS T A F F W R I T E R
Were it not for its success supplying building materials for the Grand Coulee Dam in the depths of the Great Depres-sion, Matheus Lumber Co. Inc. would not be the company it is today.
Then headquartered in Seattle, the company supplied tons of lumber used by the Public Works Administration to build the forms for most of the monu-mental concrete pours that made up the dam.
Today, in the midst of another eco-nomic downturn, Matheus retains its vi-tality just because it retains the business model — selling to big companies doing big jobs — it established 77 years ago.
If a person walks into the company’s 5 -acre headquarters lumberyard in Woodinville looking for a few two-by-fours, “We’d probably say no,” said com-pany President Gary Powell.
As he explains his company on a Mon-day morning in his Woodinville office,
a p r o -c e s s i o n of large t r u c k s , each lad-en w ith h u g e s t a c k s o f lu m -ber and concrete-g r a d e plywood,
rumble out of the yard heading for con-struction sites around the region.
“That is one of our businesses, sup-plying concrete forms, panels and lum-ber, to the major concrete jobs,” Powell said. “You cannot believe the amount of timber and panels that goes into those kind of jobs.”
While Matheus’ business is down about 20 percent in the recession, from $88.3 million in 2008 revenues, Pow-ell said his company is doing far better than yards that specialize in supplying the home-building market.
In fact Matheus is utilizing the down economy to expand, and on April 15 opened its newest distribution center, in San Marcos, Texas.
Matheus made the expansion by ac-
quiring Bison Forest Products, an exist-ing distributor “that mirrors Matheus exactly,” Powell said. Matheus’ other fa-cilities are in Vancouver and Ellensburg, Wash., and Idaho.
And the company is now actively bid-ding to supply some of the major “shovel ready” infrastructure jobs that are be-ing funded through the federal stimulus package.
“With the new stimulus package,
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Matheus lumbers through recessions by expanding
See MATHEUS | 37MATHEUS LUMBER PHOTO
ROLLING OUT: A line of trucks carries Matheus Lumber products.
MATHEUS
LUMBER CO. INC.
Founded: 1932
Founder: Charles William Matheus
Location: Woodinville
2008 revenue: $88.3M
Advice: “There’s no way to recession-proof your business. One of the few things you can do to minimize recession is not to overextend your company in the good times, and save a little bit of money. You should manage your business as if there was a recession all the time.” — Gary Powell, president
