Demise of Furniture Industry Puts Lumber Company into Pallet Arena;

INDEPENDENCE, Virginia — Independence Lumber Co. is one of the largest sawmill businesses in the U.S. It is located in southwest Virginia with good access to species of Appalachian hardwoods. The company is considered the largest privately owned hardwood sawmill in Virginia. It has been ranked the 12th largest hardwood mill in the U.S.

            In recent years the manufacturer of grade Appalachian hardwood lumber has entered the pallet industry. Owner Randall Eller explained the reason for his decision. “When the furniture industry disappeared…we had to do something” with the low-grade hardwood material the company was producing.

            The low-grade lumber previously had been sold to furniture makers for frame stock and other components. The demise of the furniture industry, which had a steady presence for decades in North Carolina until strong competition in recent years by Chinese imports, “made the decision a whole lot easier,” he added.

            Randall, 50, has worked in the sawmill business since he was 21. Originally from Crumpler, N.C., he still makes his home in the Tar Heel state, which is just a stone’s throw from Independence, where the company is based.

            Independence has good access to major highways leading to several states. U.S. 21 goes south into North Carolina and north to Wytheville, Va., with access to Interstate 77 to West Virginia and Interstate 81 up the Shenandoah Valley to northern Virginia and points further north. U.S. 58 goes west to access Interstate 81 into Tennessee and east to access Interstate 77 south into North Carolina and points south. Within a couple of hours from Independence are major furniture makers in North Carolina and Virginia.

            Independence is a small town that serves as the center of life in Grayson County. It has a population of about 1,000. People know one another by their first name, and the main social event in the fall is the weekly high school football game on Friday night.

            Randall has experienced a few twists in the sawmill business. He launched a portable sawmill business in 1976, operating out of Jefferson, N.C., and cutting mainly oak, poplar and white pine for the furniture industry. He closed the business in 1981, building a stationary sawmill the same year in Independence and also buying an interest in another mill. He sold his company, Randall Eller Lumber, in 1984, and the new owners re-named the company Independence Lumber. Three years later, Randall bought the company back. In 1996 he built a new mill on the current Independence Lumber site.

            In addition to a location that provides the company with good access to markets and customers, the region has abundant timber resources and a good labor force, Randall noted. But in addition to those advantages, the company has consistently invested in state-of-the-art sawmill machinery and provided strong service to its customers.

            Independence Lumber has expanded over the years to a 227-acre site. The company’s 140-150 employees produce about 100,000 board feet of lumber products daily with annual sales reaching about $25-$30 million. The most common species are red oak, white oak, maple, basswood, ash, cherry, white pine, walnut, hickory, and poplar. The sawmill operates five days a week, running two shifts.

            “Our success is a result of hard work, long hours, good business sense, love of our job and the forest products industry, willingness and ability to change, and some good luck,” said general manager Jack Mansfield. 

            Independence Lumber controls all aspects of its hardwood lumber manufacturing operations, from the stump to the mill and the delivery truck. The company buys large and small farms, standing timber and timberland. Virtually all standing timber comes from private landowners; a very small volume is purchased from national forest lands. Purchasing standing timber supplies about one-half of Independence Lumber’s raw material needs, and the remainder is bought from independent logging contractors. The company employs two logging crews and also relies on five to seven contract loggers. It has a fleet of 25 company trucks and uses about 10 contract truckers.

John Williams, a forestry major at Dabney S. Lancaster Community College, is a forest technician at Independence Lumber. “Basically, we are on staff to pick trees that will produce the best yield possible and to protect the land for future growth,” he said.

John’s father, David, is the operations manager of Independence Lumber while his mother, Becky, serves as the company’s human resources officer. “I guess it’s fate,” he said. “I can’t see myself working anywhere else.”

            Nelson Weaver oversees procurement of raw material and coordinates the delivery of logs to the mill. In the yard, logs are sorted by species, grade and size. When logs are ready to be processed in the mill, first they go through a debarking process. Larger, higher grade logs are sent to an HMC debarker, and a Ligna debarker removes the bark from smaller, lower grade logs.

            The bark is collected and moved to a holding area to allow it to age and reach a uniform color. The aged bark is then processed by a Jones Manufacturing Co. Mighty Giant tub grinder to be converted into landscape mulch. The company produces five or six trailer-loads of mulch daily, and it is sold wholesale to markets throughout the Southeast.

The sawmill has two separate lines to process larger, higher grade logs and smaller, lower grade logs.

Large, high grade logs go to a Cleereman head rig to be squared up. The Cleereman circular saw head rig is equipped with a top saw that is used for unusually large diameter logs. The logs are scanned by Silvatech scanners, and a Silvatech optimization system guides the head rig controls.

Smaller logs are sawn on a Cooper scragg mill equipped with two blades that remove two sides of the log in one pass. If the log is above 10 inches in diameter, the log will go through for a second pass to remove two boards. The two-sided cant goes through a Ligna bull edger to be processed further into a four-sided cant. All cants smaller than 10 inches are conveyed to a Ligna thin-kerf gang saw to be resawn. Larger cants as well as the squares produced at the head rig all are routed to a Jocar band mill to be resawn.

            The lumber is edged by a Land-East edger with a Nelson Bros. optimization system. It is then graded and collected at a Morris Industries trimmer equipped with Softtech optimization.

            An automated 60-bay sorting system is the latest addition to the mill, and there is room to add another 10 bays in the future to accommodate growth. The sorting system, added in 2000, was supplied by Morris Industries. Bundles of lumber are banded manually.

            The company’s grade lumber is sold to concentration yards, molding plants, flooring mills and some furniture plants. Low-grade lumber goes to the pallet division, which was established two years ago.

            The pallet cut-up shop has a Brewer Inc.-Golden Eagle line of equipment for remanufacturing cants into pallet stock. The Brewer twin-select cut-off saw cuts the cant into pieces of appropriate length, and the sized cant material then is resawn by a Brewer double-arbor gang saw. The finished lumber is accumulated automatically on a Brewer stacker. In addition, the cut-up shop is equipped with a Trace Equipment three-head trimmer with accumulating table for cutting low-grade boards to length. A Brewer double-head notching machine with Econotool cutting heads forms the notches on stringers for four-way pallets.

            Pallet assembly operations are housed in a different building. The company produces 8,000-10,000 pallets weekly, most of them on a Viking Turbo 505 nailing machine. Additional pallets are assembled by hand with Stanley-Bostitch power nailing tools. Viking or Mid-Continent bulk nails are used in the Viking pallet assembly system.

            The company produces a small volume of GMA pallets but most are custom sizes or footprints, according to Randall. Independence Lumber can provide painting and branding services. The company also has been supplying heat-treated pallets for about a year, choosing so far to contract with other companies for heat-treating service. Pallet customers represent such industries as building supplies, produce, plastics, coatings and produce.

            Independence Lumber has a fleet of 25 trucks and about 100 different types of trailers for making deliveries. The company ships lumber to customers in Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, as well as Washington, D.C. and Canada.

            “We probably will increase the shipping area to more states and eventually overseas,” said Jack.

            “This is a global business and an ever-changing business,” he added. “We must change and adapt as markets change.”

Independence Lumber has a maintenance staff and file shop staff to maintain its machinery and saw blades. The company buys saw blades from Simons, Sharp Tool and Peerless.

            Independence Lumber has a Web site (www.indlbr.com) and lists property for sale after timber has been harvested.

            So, what does the future hold for Independence Lumber? The company is upgrading its edgers and is clearing a rock quarry in order to construct dry kilns.

            “Our main objective for the future is to become better at what we do — offering a quality product with quality service,” said Randall. “That’s our number one priority.”