TimberKing owner, Tom Brueggen has many irons in the fire. “I’m always looking for business opportunities and running them through my head to see if they’re a play I want to make.” He’s made a lot of plays and runs several small, successful enterprises.
Success key? All Tom’s endeavors support one another
Tom does excavation work and land clearing. And he’s on call to remove nuisance beehives. These jobs give Tom access to timber he saws into high-quality, very marketable lumber with his TimberKing 1220. His wife, Katie, is a one-woman, do-it-all cabinetmaker who uses Tom’s wood products in her business.
Here’s their business plan: diversification, integration, flexibility, quality, low production, high margin, and a sharp eye for opportunity.
“We’re both engineers and we both got laid off,” Tom told us. “We had great jobs but working in the corporate world can get boring doing the same thing every day. We decided to go off on our own.”
Adding value adds profits
“Around here, I see high-quality hardwoods being sawed into low-value railroad ties,” says Tom. “I went after some premium white oak logs, straight as a string. I tried to get the logger to saw them for me but he sold them to a pallet mill instead.” Tom saw opportunity: controlling more of the supply chain would add value and profits — so he saws hardwood logs into high-quality boards with his TimberKing 1220.
Low volume and high margin“I realized you can be a high-volume business with low margins, or a low-volume business with high margins,” Tom tells us. “I chose low-volume with high margin.” And his margins are great with fees ranging from $70/hour to $150/hour. That’s why Tom’s 1220 TimberKing fits his business plan. “It doesn’t have hydraulics so it’s less expensive than bigger mills. It fits the work I do and I’m very happy with it.”
Tom shares his business savvy
“General ads, like ‘I’ll saw your logs,’ don’t get attention,” he says. “But when I advertise specific lumber products and wood species,” he says, “I get all kinds of calls.”
“I don’t chase the slab market,” Tom tells us. “I specialize in hardwood boards, 1” and 2” thick. Hickory and oak are great, but the market’s real sweet spot is walnut. It’s hard to find good walnut down here, though, maybe 1 tree per 100 acres.”
And Tom’s very active on Facebook’s TimberKing Owners Group, posting photos, videos, and updates on his sawing experiences.
Flexibility is key
Tom’s customers are custom woodworkers and folks building new homes or renovating older ones. Business is booming around Houston, says Tom. “The boom never ends. Houston’s always growing, more and more houses.” But flexibility is key. “I’ll sell a lot of wood mantles then that market dries up and other products like boards or beams get big.” That’s where being nimble pays off for Tom’s diverse, integrated businesses.
Some sawyers who sell direct-to-customers stock large inventories. Tom takes a different path. “I don’t want to get tied up with a lot of lumber inventory,” says Tom. “I show samples and people order from them.” That keeps his business nimble and his overhead down.
4-post durability
Tom shopped around. “I looked at a competitor’s sawmills but I don’t trust their cantilever head, it just makes me nervous. I like the durability of TimberKing’s 4-post head. And their customer service is great. I just drop an email, or call Mike or Matt at TimberKing.
What’s next for Tom? “We’re installing a big vacuum dry kiln that’ll handle 4,000 board feet of lumber per load.” Besides drying his own lumber, he’ll diversify by custom-drying lumber for other sawyers throughout eastern Texas. “We’ll load it and leave it. It’ll add value and profits while we work on other projects.”
— Tom Brueggen, TimberKing 1220 Owner, Shepherd TX
HAVE QUESTIONS? 3 ways we can help you
• Call us 1-800-942-4406
• Email us [email protected]
• Visit us on Facebook