Many miles from any hardwood forest, a milling company in Cortez is on track to sell more flooring this year than ever before.
Muscanell Millworks, along with many hardwood flooring companies, was hit hard by the recession. But this year the company sold 1 million square feet of flooring by Aug. 6 and is on track to exceed its pre-recession levels of production.
“We’ve definitely had better demand on our flooring, it’s increasing as the economy improves,” said co-owner Karen Harbaugh.
Resort communities such as Aspen, Park City, Utah, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, are helping to fuel the orders, she said.
The company is succeeding despite the lumber supply chain and flooring market undergoing major changes as a result of the recession.
“The whole industry was under threat,” Harbaugh said.
After the housing crash, she said the mill worked to survive when sales fell by 75 percent. In the rebuilding process attitudes have changed.
“The crew has gotten a lot more involved in thinking about how we can be more efficient,” she said.
Isolated a thousand miles away from the closest supplier, Muscanell has always faced steep shipping costs.
But as a result of the recession many small loggers and lumber mills closed leaving a shortage of raw hardwood lumber in the market and forcing prices higher across the board.
Harbaugh expects it will take awhile for that void to be filled and in the meantime the company must dedicate a lot of time looking for the right quality of wood.
In addition, a shortage of truckers means the company is often waiting for the next load to arrive.
“Transportation is an issue and I don’t think is going to away,” Harbaugh said.
However, some of the factors that have made the company successful over 19 years are also tied to location. For example, the climate keeps the wood dry after it’s processed so it doesn’t crack after it’s shipped around the Western U.S.
Local zoning that allows the company to coexist near agricultural and residential areas have also helped the company.
“Our county is not over regulated and that is pretty important to us,” she said
However, since the mill is isolated from complementary industries that might use the mills byproduct is over the years, the company has worked to come up with ways to repurpose the mill’s dust from the 3 million square feet of raw wood.
“We would be absolutely buried in our dust if we weren’t making a product out of it,” she said.
The mill uses sawdust as fuel for the boiler and compresses it into logs that can be used in wood stoves.
As for the future, Harbaugh said, despite a somewhat unstable housing market, the company is poised for more growth and new products.
“We feel very fortunate we’ve been able to make it here,” she said.
mshinn@cortezjournal.com