Glen Oak Corporate History Continued
Like the acorn that grows into a mighty oak, Talbot's plans for his Acorn Oak® brand S4S red oak boards began to take root, slowly but surely. He found and acquired suitable property for his new business (seven acres in Montello, Wisconsin), remodeled facilities, selected and purchased production and distribution equipment, and hired and trained mill personnel. It was two full years (1980) before there was actual product to sell and Talbot started doing business as Glen Oak Lumber & Milling, Inc.

Patience and persistence paid off. Once the S4S red oak product was ready, Wisconsin retailers wasted no time introducing this new product to the marketplace. S4S hardwood lumber quickly caught on and became a staple for lumberyards nationwide. The product category has since grown to include oak, poplar, aspen and maple S4S boards-each multi-million dollar products in their own right.

Today, S4S is just one of many lines in Glen Oak's extensive product mix. The expansion of its offerings began with a commitment to full grade utilization. Converting random width lumber to S4S boards in marketable sizes generated a lot of excess rippings. By 1984, Glen Oak was putting these high quality rippings to good use, and had thereby expanded its business to include production of red oak mouldings.

At about the same time, Glen Oak entered into a joint venture relationship with Mid-America Hardwoods, Inc. This provided Glen Oak with additional large volume production of oak mouldings made to its own specifications, at three plants in Missouri and Mississippi.

Thanks to the superb efforts of Glen Oak's sales and service teams, orders for mixed truckloads of boards and moulding products came rolling in and, by 1985, Glen Oak had to build an additional warehouse for finished product. In Talbot's quest for continuous improvement, Glen Oak also added and upgraded machinery, including a time-saver sander which made S4S board face quality better than ever and changed another industry standard.

In 1986, a general office building was constructed to house the support staff needed to serve Glen Oak's expanding customer list. The business was growing at a rapid pace. In the spring of 1987, on its original site in Montello, Glen Oak began constructing a second mill to double production and accommodate additional product lines. But, before Mill #2 was operational, a fire destroyed Mill #1, burning it to the ground and leaving production in ashes.

In spite of the fire, Glen Oak did not miss a ship date. Orders were shipped from a joint venture established in Alabama until September 1988, when Mill #2 came on line and production resumed in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Mill #1 was rebuilt in 1989, bigger and better than the original. The new mill was set up to include a veneer line which permitted Glen Oak to better utilize wood resources and lower product cost via its new line of "engineered solutions." One of the nation's first hardwood millwork manufacturers to finger-joint oak (due to inherent difficulties), Glen Oak fine-tuned the process, producing consistent high-quality product. With such ideal finger-jointing technology, Glen Oak could now utilize every piece of oak, six inches and longer.

Diversification into new target markets was the next order of business. Ron Lindquist joined Glen Oak in millwork sales and launched an "industrial sales" division three years later. In 1990, Ron's sales office was relocated from Wisconsin to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, closer to his suppliers and customer base. The present Pennsylvania facility houses four team members who service Glen Oak industrial accounts in North America.

Also in 1990, Glen Oak began manufacturing a fully wrapped veneered door jamb, to complement its rapidly growing oak moulding line. The fully wrapped jamb proved an instant success. It was more affordable and better looking than the edge strip jamb, which previously controlled the market.
In addition to introducing new product solutions, Glen Oak influences its markets in other ways. For example, in 1992, it began shrink-wrapping product for large retailers and labeling each item with a specific UPC code. Such packaging is now common practice for many manufacturers and, today, Glen Oak stickers millions of SKUs for customers each year. The company is constantly upgrading its technology to meet the changing needs of its customers.

Glen Oak continually looks for new ways to strengthen its position as one of the nation's largest and best-diversified hardwood millwork providers. In 1994, the company reconfigured Wisconsin Mill #2 with more than $1 million in world-class wood working equipment. The new equipment facilitated a 50 percent increase in production capacity, and enabled Glen Oak to keep pace with the increasing demand for Glen Oak's quality products.

Glen Oak's biggest growth spurt was triggered by the spotted owl. The bird's nomination for endangered species status caused logging constraints in the Pacific Northwest; pine moulding prices went sky-high while product quality spiraled downward. Lumber dealers found themselves in need of a paintable moulding product they could count on, at a reasonable and predictable price. In response, Glen Oak developed Prime Poplar®-the high quality pine alternative for buyers fed up with poor quality and inconsistent manufacturing.

To enter the poplar business, Glen Oak built a state-of-the-art $3.5 million poplar plant in Somerset, Kentucky and began full-scale production of Prime Poplar mouldings in February 1996. The quality of the product's substrate, finger-jointing and paint-priming quickly inspired dealers and contractors to "trade up" to Prime Poplar and leave primed pine behind.

Within a year, strong demand for the best paint-primed moulding in the market necessitated increases in Glen Oak's Kentucky distribution and production capacities. A large warehouse was constructed to maximize storage for finished inventory and rough lumber and the original poplar mill was expanded to incorporate a second finger joint line. In 1999, Kentucky Mill #2 was added, providing an additional 50,000 square feet of space for producing S4S poplar boards. Glen Oak's poplar business has grown so much that the Kentucky campus underwent additional expansions and currently employs 160,000 square feet under roof (including a dedicated paint-priming plant and a bagged shavings operation) on 24 acres.

In addition to the Kentucky expansions, Glen Oak has experienced significant growth and change, fueled by substantial investments, in the new millennium. Some highlights include:
• Forming a state-of-the-art finishing business with partner and former employee Scott Copus.
• Constructing a dedicated distribution center near Atlanta, Georgia to facilitate routine delivery of Glen Oak products to customers in the Southeastern US.
• Entering into the window fashions market, beginning with production of poplar shutter components, followed by basswood, bamboo and cellular PVC shutter parts.
• Establishing a distribution center in Naples, Florida.
• Acquiring North American Sunburst, a leading manufacturer of specialty-shape shutters.
• Constructing a third mill in Wisconsin for production of hardwood mouldings and shutter components.
• Developing new products and features, including SB43, a proprietary stain-blocking anti-fungal primer.
• Acquiring the assets of Space-Metrics, LLC-a closet systems and cabinetry manufacturing business-plus, purchasing and remodeling a large plant in Wisconsin for production of new and improved Space-Metrics USA , LLC products.

Through it all, meeting customers' needs with the products they want has been, and always will be, what drives Glen Oak's growth and success. The company will continue to reinvest its earnings in order to build capacity and introduce products for the benefit of its long-time customers and prospects.

Back to Top
[ < Back to Page 1 of Glen Oak Corporate History ]