Fitts Industries Inc., Founded On Family Values And Rooted In Resourcefulness
Fitts Industries Inc., located in Tuscaloosa, AL, purchases over one million board feet a year in a wide assortment of hardwood and softwood lumber to craft stair parts such as balusters, newel posts, box newel posts, handrails, starting steps, treads, mouldings and more.
Species purchased by Fitts include Red and White Oak, Poplar, Hard Maple, Beech, Mahogany, antique pine, Hickory, Alder, Hemlock, Cherry, Black Walnut and some white pine. They work with these species in No. 2 Common and Better, No. 1 Common, and FAS. As for the thicknesses, they offer 4/4, 5/4, 6/4 and some 8/4. Frank Fitts III, owner and president of Fitts Industries Inc. explained that their “primary use of lumber thicknesses is 4/4 and 5/4,” and that, “it’s selective because that’s what the industry is demanding. Poplar has become probably our number one volume item and I think it is because it is versatile. It can be stained in very different fashions. It can be painted, and it typically costs less as a material but not always. It’s easy to work and dry.” Frank also had some commentary about White Oak, which is “incredibly popular right now. I think it just has a nice consistent look. It is one of my favorites.” Compared to Red Oak, he said White Oak is “more consistent with color and it doesn’t have the reddish look. It has more of a brownish look for consistency, but I believe it is extremely popular in Europe.”
Rooted in Resourcefulness
Most of their lumber comes from the Appalachian region in Tennessee, with the exception of their imported species. They have a warehouse operation in Gig Harbor, WA, and its lumber is purchased from Canada, Washington and Vietnam. They also import species from Taiwan and Southeast Asia.
Regarding domestic lumber, he mentioned that they buy “primarily from sawmills directly and most of our lumber is purchased green. We will buy some kiln dried.” They are “located on 23 acres and our facilities take up about 120,000 square feet. Some of that is storage, some of that is warehousing and some of that is manufacturing. Probably warehousing is in the 80,000 square feet area; manufacturing is in 60,000 to 70,000 square feet, and the other is storage space.”
Frank explained that his uncle, who worked as the Chief Engineer for Wright Aeronautical, oversaw the construction of the B-17 bomber airplanes during the second World War and started the company in 1947. “They couldn’t get steel fabrication parts just from anywhere and my uncle found that he could get it from the government that was decommissioning the Liberty ships, which were built so quickly in the war effort against Germany. They could only find material at that time from that source. My uncle and one of his employees built the framework in-house, constructed the building and the dust collection system, which is still there. It was built by a gentleman from Jacksonville, FL who used to build the ductwork inside the Navy ships. It was pretty fascinating how one person came in to do the work and build the plant for the dust collection systems out of sheet metal, rivets and solder,” he stated.
In 1952, the business moved to its current location and in 1993, they opened their operation on the West Coast. “A big factor of our business since back in the early 1990’s,” Frank explained, “has been growing our markets on the West Coast and Japan.” In addition to exporting to Japan, they have a few customers in some Caribbean countries on a “job lot basis,” he said.
Founded By Family
Fitts Industries is family run and operated with Frank’s daughter, Madeline Fitts-Davidson, as the vice president and his son, Frank Fitts IV, who started working at the company in January of 2024, as the operations manager. When asked how working alongside his family is, Frank exclaimed “It is great! It is awesome!” Maxwell Elebash, the assistant production manager, is another key employee in the company made up of 45 workers.
As for the future, he noted, “I think the economy changed the world somewhat during Covid, but we do plan to grow and venture into other products besides just stair parts. We probably come up with something new every year or two- every couple of years. We will go into some other type of product that helps us with our volumes in what we do, and we might come up with a new pattern of handrail on an annual basis or a turning profile.” They design their products using a “team approach from a marketing in-house design scenario,” added Frank.
To produce their stair parts, high-quality equipment is a must for Fitts Industries and the owner and president is satisfied with the performances of the machines. “They all do a very good job; they are well made equipment,” he explained. They use Mattison turning lathes, a CNC router from Italy, Weinig moulders, Mereen-Johnson Double End Tenoners sourced from Minneapolis, MN, and a RFS PROTECH Edge Gluer machine made by Ogden Group Woodworking Machinery and Systems in Matthews, NC. In addition to these machines, they utilize products from Irvington-Moore, Nyle Dry Kilns and controls for the dry-kilns from Lignomat USA Ltd., located in Portland, OR; Newman Whitney for planers and gang rip saws; products from Yates-American Machine, in Beloit, WI, and Tisfoon Ulterior Systems for some of their scanning equipment and machinery operations.
They have also invested in the “Schneeberger Maschinen AG from Roggwil, Switzerland as the sharpening machinery for our tooling,” Frank said. Frank is proud of their tooling, listing off their router bits, planer and moulder heads in, for the most part, carbide form which they can service themselves. He noted that tooling is “probably one of the most important aspects besides the machinery, if not more important than the machinery, to do good woodworking.”
He noted that despite all this machinery, they don’t “create any energy,” for themselves, relying upon a power company. They do, however, as Frank said, “dry lumber with our wood waste, burning that in a boiler which is used to heat the kilns to create the energy to dry the lumber.”
Fitts Industries Inc. is a member of the World Millwork Alliance, the Wood Component Manufacturers Association, the Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers Inc. and the Stairbuilders and Manufacturers Association.
To learn more, visit fitts.com
