Men who grew up in the wood industry have a hard time leaving it.
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Men who grew up in the wood industry have a hard time leaving it.
Ron Hendricks, who has a long list of wood flooring companies and organizations on his résumé, "unretired" himself this September after he was approached by Hull Forest Products' Ben Hull with an opportunity.
Eight months later, Hendricks came to the National Wood Flooring Association's 2014 Wood Flooring Expo in April as an exhibitor, and officially launched what took him less than a year to grind out: a new engineered flooring company, Eastern Star Hardwoods. It's a company that Hendricks, at 71 years old and with little help, has nursed to fruition.
"I love to be able to take something that's new and make something large out of it," Hendricks said. "It's always been a fascinating side of marketing, to take a small beginning and make it a big beginning."
The company's product is an engineered 4mm sawn face-sturdy enough that multiple sand and finishes won't ruin it, he said-on an 8-ply birch back that comes in 5- and 8-inch widths and a 9/16-inch thickness.
What makes the product unique, Hendricks said, is that 80 percent of the material used to manufacture the floor in China comes from American forests via Hull Forest Products. This gives Eastern Star Hardwood more control over its product than if it simply relied on foreign timber sources.
That control over the product has people interested. More than 10 distributors stopped by Hendricks booth at the NWFA Expo, and product avenues are starting to open, he said.
Looking long-term, Hendricks said he would like to have a national distribution network in place in three years, and plans to operate warehouses in Connecticut or Massachusetts. Right now, he already has a couple distributors committed. The plan is to sign up a minimum of eight distributors before the end of the year.
Ambitious? Certainly. Hendricks wouldn't have it any other way. He said he loves a challenge, he once set up 23 distributors in 12 months for North Pacific Corporation/Spring Creek Flooring, and he can't wait to make Eastern Star Hardwood grow.