Family Tree Helps Build Plywood Manufacturing Company
March 8, 1988.
Robert Smith remembers it like it was yesterday.
“I was 17 years old,” he said. “My dad worked here (Columbia Forest Products) and he told me one day during the summer, he said, ‘Come here, you’re getting a job.’ I started on the weekend crew and, when I graduated, I stayed here full time and they actually paid for my college.”
Thirty-six years later, Smith remains at Columbia Forest Products at the company’s Old Fort mill in McDowell County.
He’s now a value stream manager.
“A lot of people here that’s currently retiring out watched me grow up,” said Smith. “I worked with them for the whole 36 years. It’s a family environment.”
Smith’s story is a familiar one at Columbia Forest Products, North America’s largest manufacturer of quality, decorative hardwood plywood.
Many of the mill’s 350 employees are second and third generation family members to work for Columbia Forest Products.
“It’s a very special thing,” said Randy Marsh, plant manager at the Old Fort facility. “Longevity of our employees is something we hang our hat on. People come to work for us and find out what we’re all about. They typically stay with us a long time. We also have so many stories where their parents worked here and their grandparents worked here.”
While the corporate headquarters for the company is in Greensboro, the Old Fort mill has been a staple of the community since it opened in 1982.
Columbia Forest Products manufactures plywood that goes into cabinets, as well as furniture.
“We predominantly use Southern Yellow Poplar in our plywood and we use a little bit of Yellow Pine, as well,” said Marsh.
The company sells to distribution customers who, in turn, get the plywood to hundreds of thousands of small cabinet shops throughout the country.
Original equipment manufacturers who produce high volumes of cabinets are another large component of its customer base.
However, the biggest individual customer is Home Depot.
“From that retail standpoint, you can only buy our plywood at Home Depot,” said Marsh.
“When we’re here, we learn,” said Gary Salamido, president and CEO of NC Chamber. “We learn not only what’s made and where it goes, but we learn about the people and the people are the story.”
Salamido and other representatives from NC Chamber got the opportunity to tour Columbia Forest Products and its Old Fort mill in January.
“It’s a great partnership to have,” said Marsh. “One, for them to see what our employees do, what we do, and what it takes to make plywood. Then, to go back out and be an advocate for us for the future, it’s very good.”
Salamido agreed.
“To understand what it’s about, to see it, to talk to the people, to hear their stories, we become a better advocate for the manufacturing industry and for businesses,” said Salamido.
The story of the employees in Old Fort isn’t just multi-generational, it’s also a story of ownership.
Columbia Forest Products offers an ESOP, or an Employee Stock Ownership Program.
“Working for an ESOP company where you have stock in the company, you’re an owner, and then that goes towards your retirement, it’s a very special thing,” said Marsh.
It’s one of many reasons why Smith has been with the company for nearly four full decades.
It is great to look back and know I’ve got my stock options here at work where I can hopefully live comfortably once I finally retire,” he said.
Smith also is looking ahead and knows his future is on solid ground.
“I think this mill and our company will be around a long time,” he said.