Big Commercial Operation (Vid)
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teutonicking
Feeling the Heat
Blue2ndaries
Minister of Fire
Trilifter7
Feeling the Heat
Michael Golden
Feeling the Heat
NortheastAl
Minister of Fire
At first I thought they were at Backwoods house!
swagler85
Minister of Fire
Wow that's great! That's a big business with small family feel. Love to see people accomplish things like that. Props to the owners there.
Holy Friggin Cow!! I think I found my dream job.......
Talk about a first class operation in regards to a firewood dealer.......this should be a model for EVERYONE that sells firewood. Excellent video, thanks for posting!!
Talk about a first class operation in regards to a firewood dealer.......this should be a model for EVERYONE that sells firewood. Excellent video, thanks for posting!!
Ashful
Minister of Fire
I agree, Scotty. Looks like a hell of a fun way to make a living. Unfortunately, she said they only sell 5500 cords per year, which don't amount to much money, when you have that sort of staff, equipment, and liability! Figure, even if they get full retail $200/cord (most probably gets sold at wholesale, much less than that), they're topping out at $1.1M per year. They have a staff of 12, likely enormous liability insurance, and a heck of a lot of equipment to purchase / maintain. It's surprising they are able to stay above water.
In my business, if you're not clearing $0.5M per employee, you're going out of business.
In my business, if you're not clearing $0.5M per employee, you're going out of business.
Yeah, I know there's not much money in the end there......but its fun to dream!!
Gotta say, I disagree with your assessment. They sell to restaurants, residential and specialty barbecue market. They export to Hawaii and Saudi Arabia. Their 30 Lbs box of Almond barbecue chunk wood sells for $49.99 plus shipping. Plum chunk wood is $52.50. How much is that? About $5000 per cord? They have figured out how to market to the specialty market (to include yule logs) and that is likely how they make a bunch of money. They probably pay a low price for their wood (except for their specialty woods from down south) and the loggers bring it to them because they know that they are always buying and probably get paid cash on the spot. If they only sold to residential, I might agree with your estimate, but based on my assessment of their business plan, I would think that they gross at least double your estimate and likely much more.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Actually, my assessment had not even included the cost of buying the un-processed wood, as I considered that cost insignificant, next to salaries, equipment, and insurance. They clearly must be doing something to average better than $200/cord, otherwise they would not be in business. But, do you really assume that these boutique markets are a very large portion of the 5500 cords they move each year? I really doubt it.
I don't assume that the boutique wood market is a very large portion of the 5500 cords that they sell, however, I do believe that the stuff that they sell to the specialty market is a high margin product. I learned a while ago that what I am willing to spend my money on can not be used as an accurate gage of what other people will spend their money on. I'm just too damn frugal. Take a look at their website. http://jnfirewood.com/index.cfm/home They probably started small and grew intelligently by marketing to people who can afford a better quality product. When given a choice of providing a high quality product at high margins to a discerning customer versus providing a mediocre product at low margin to the masses, I'd prefer to do the former. Higher prices will naturally cull many from the target audience and allow the company to focus on a few customer to whom they can provide a superior product with exceptional customer service. Now I'm making more assumptions, but like you said, if they weren't doing certain things right, they would have gone out of business long ago.
I couldnt see the video on my cellphone. URL cookie thing I imagine. Thanks for the website link.
Ive been entertaining the idea of a small kiln. An entry level kiln is around 25,000.00 but..
I always feel bad for these small guys who get sucked into working just to make payments to a bank. Its a false feeling of financial independance.
Ive been entertaining the idea of a small kiln. An entry level kiln is around 25,000.00 but..
I always feel bad for these small guys who get sucked into working just to make payments to a bank. Its a false feeling of financial independance.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Augie is our forum solar kiln expert. He's been drying a lot of firewood this way. I have read up on them many times, usually for drying hardwood lumber, but have never built one, myself.
They are kiln drying a lot of their wood. In Boston kiln dried will sell to wealthy apartment dwellers for upwards of $500 a cord (usually in 1/4 cord increments at crazy prices like $150). I expect other large cities are similar. And imagine what they charge to ship birch logs to the KSA??
What did surprise me was shots of people using chainsaws and logs splitters. I expected to see a couple of those automated firewood processors. (Edit: they must have one, I image it just didnt make the vid)
What did surprise me was shots of people using chainsaws and logs splitters. I expected to see a couple of those automated firewood processors. (Edit: they must have one, I image it just didnt make the vid)
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