Glen Oak Corporate History
A privately held company headquartered in Montello, Wisconsin, Glen Oak Lumber & Milling, Inc. is one of the largest and best-diversified hardwood lumber and millwork manufacturers in the US. The company's wood products are produced and distributed via state-of-the-art facilities in seven states. Glen Oak's Kentucky operation alone would rank as one of the 10 largest hardwood moulding producers in the nation.

Glen Oak sells mill-direct to pro-sales building materials dealers, home centers, fabricators and other manufacturers. The company's extensive lumber and millwork product line encompasses a growing family of strong brands: Acorn Oak®, Prime Poplar®, Primero Pine®, Classic Grains™, Capital White™, Sculptured Woods™, Cabinet Contours™, Arrow-Straight F.J. ®, Arrow-Straight Basswood™, Ex-Cell™, Bamboo Breezes™, North American Sunburst™, Engineered Solutions™ and more. Whether they represent boards, mouldings, flooring, cabinet doors, window fashions, animal bedding or component parts, Glen Oak brands share a common reputation for product quality, consistency and value.

Pioneering New Products and Ideas
At 25 years and counting, Glen Oak Lumber & Milling has a lot to celebrate, including decades of success and a bright future ahead. The company's growth and prosperity stem from a commitment to pioneering new products that solve industry problems-Tom Talbot's clear and constant vision since day one…

In the late 1970s, while working as a softwood lumber broker for Roberts & Dybdahl, Talbot witnessed the growing concerns of Wisconsin's largest lumber dealers. They were dissatisfied with the hardwood boards available, manufactured to the existing hardwood industry standard: S2SSLR1-E (surfaced two sides, straight-line ripped, one edge, random width). These dealers wanted a better, more user-friendly hardwood product, which they could supply to builders and homeowners.

From Talbot's perspective, the solution seemed obvious: produce a clear one-face product, kiln-dried to a six- to eight-percent moisture content, graded on actual board appearance, and produced in specified nominal widths from 2" to 12" (similar to softwood board product lines). By applying a softwood product strategy to hardwood lumber, he believed he could provide lumber dealers with a quality product that would be easier to tally and sell. He also decided to start his own lumber brokerage business, and incorporated Tom Talbot, Inc. in 1978.

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The Montello, Wisconsin property then (1979) ...

... and now (Glen Oak Corporate Headquarters).

When a fire destroyed Glen Oak’s original mill in 1988, customer order fulfillment did not miss a beat, thanks to joint venture production and distribution arrangements.