Josey Lumber Company…In The Hands Of A New Generation

Dec Issue

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Josey Lumber and JoCo Lumber are family businesses. From left to right are Logan’s Family: Vivian, 3; Sarah; Logan; John, 5;  Charlie, 7; Debbie and Joey Josey; and Tripp’s family: Tripp, Hannah Claire, 5; Pammy; and Kitch, 2.
Josey Lumber and JoCo Lumber are family businesses. From left to right are Logan’s Family: Vivian, 3; Sarah; Logan; John, 5; Charlie, 7; Debbie and Joey Josey; and Tripp’s family: Tripp, Hannah Claire, 5; Pammy; and Kitch, 2.

“That was extremely important to my Dad – that he wanted us to have some skin in the game, because when you are given something, sometimes, it’s just not as important to you or doesn’t mean as much to you.”

Tripp Josey, co-owner, Josey Lumber Company

Scotland Neck, NC—Joey Josey began Josey Lumber Company, located here, in 1983 as a green Hardwood sawmill. With hard work, know-how and careful financial management, “We built that business up,” said Joey’s son Tripp Josey. In the early 1990s, Joey Josey also established JoCo Lumber, which included a planer mill.

Today, Josey Lumber is continuing to advance, with ownership under a younger generation of Josey’s (Tripp, co-owner and his brother Logan Josey, co-owner) and new equipment installed for both the quality of the product and the health of the bottom line.

“We just recently completed an upgrade of our green trim line at the sawmill,” Tripp stated. “We turned to TS Manufacturing of Lindsay, ON for our equipment needs and the installation was done by RTM Industrial Maintenance of Dolphin, VA. The new line will allow better and more accurate grading, tallying and trimming. The graded board passes through an Accutally system then under a Cypress grade mark reader and is then trimmed by a TS Manufacturing 11 saw trimmer. A REA JET printer prints the grade mark on the board.”

The equipment upgrade is expected to yield several benefits to Josey Lumber. “First,” said Tripp, “when you can trim a board more accurately, I think it helps you in the drying process. It just helps with the handling of the lumber around here. It also helps with the appearance of the lumber, which is important. When you walk through a warehouse, you look at lumber and the appearance is what kind of catches the eye. You’ve got to be able to back that appearance by quality, but that’s the first thing anybody sees. That’s with anything you see in life. When you see a car that drives by, you immediately either like it or you don’t. You form a first impression, and I think lumber is the same way. 

“Secondly, this will definitely allow us to trim it more accurately,” Tripp continued. “By putting in the tally system, it will be an accurate tally rather than a man laying a stick on it which, anytime a man touches the board or keys in something, there’s an opportunity for error. So, we are just eliminating the human error aspect of some of the potential problems. 

At JoCo, the kiln-dried inspection line is a bustling place.
At JoCo, the kiln-dried inspection line is a bustling place.

“Also, I think it will gain us a little bit of overrun, but the main intent of the project is just for cleanliness purposes, neatness, accuracy, efficiency, and the fact that, thirdly, it will streamline the payroll. It helps us on the payback aspect of things.” Tripp went on to say that with COVID and labor shortages, adding automation will help continue to get the work done.

Josey Lumber and JoCo Lumber – that is, Joey Josey, Tripp and Logan – planned this plant upgrade in phases. Tripp recalled, “When we sat down a few years ago, we had a three-stage process in mind, to go through our mill and upgrade some of our equipment. It started with the resaw, the edger, and the trimmer, and we completed the resaw and the edger project. Now, this is phase III, and what we are doing is moving our graders upstairs in front of the trimmer so they will be making all the trim decisions prior to the board getting to the trimmer. 

“As for our trimmer,” Tripp noted, “we installed our current trimmer back in 1996, and it was time to do something, so we just decided to take that extra step and go with a little more of the bells and whistles than we typically would have. We will take the sawmill trimmer and we will move it over to our dry line and do some modifications to that. So, we will repurpose it.”

Josey Lumber and JoCo Lumber employ 45 people. The sawmill division, Josey Lumber located in Scotland Neck, NC, cuts approximately 10 to 11 million board feet a year that includes Hardwood lumber, cants and timbers.
Josey Lumber and JoCo Lumber employ 45 people. The sawmill division, Josey Lumber located in Scotland Neck, NC, cuts approximately 10 to 11 million board feet a year that includes Hardwood lumber, cants and timbers.
A truck loaded with 4/4 FAS Poplar KD is ready to depart from JoCo Lumber.
A truck loaded with 4/4 FAS Poplar KD is ready to depart from JoCo Lumber.

All of this equipment represents a significant financial investment for Josey Lumber and JoCo Lumber. It is a continuation of a way of doing business that has worked well for the Josey’s. Tripp explained that when they make a purchase, it has to be such that they can write a check for it. During the Great Recession, that served the Josey’s well, as they were able to ride out the storm.

Another fiscal move was the transition of company ownership from Joey Josey to Tripp and Logan. Both sons went to work for Josey Lumber right out of college. Tripp hired on in 2002, and Logan began working there four years later. Tripp recalls that his father “knew very soon after us getting out of college that we were serious about it, and we weren’t here to just goof off and get a paycheck and go do our thing. He knew from the beginning that we were committed.”

Joey wanted to sell the company to his sons, not just to give it to them. To pull that off, Tripp and Logan saved a lot of money. “That was extremely important to my Dad – that he wanted us to have some skin in the game, so we started working with an estate planner to negotiate the generational transfer of ownership. It was decided that, beginning in 2012, the sons would pay their father annual installments. The target date for the full amount to be paid was 2032, a span of 20 years.

Boards are studied closely in the inspection line by green lumber inspectors Al Harmon and Jonas Simpson at Josey Lumber.
Boards are studied closely in the inspection line by green lumber inspectors Al Harmon and Jonas Simpson at Josey Lumber.

“We did a two-year payment in year one and the next year,” Tripp recalls. “We just got lucky, I guess, but we doubled up every year, and we completed the buy-out at the end of December 2020. We bought the business in 8 years versus the 20-year buy-out.” So, under new ownership – groomed by Joey Josey himself – Josey Lumber and JoCo Lumber are moving forward.

Additionally, JoCo Lumber complements Josey Lumber as JoCo has dry kilns and buys green lumber from Josey Lumber. The two family-owned companies operate symbiotically, giving Josey a place to sell its green lumber and giving JoCo Lumber a source of material for its dry kilns. This relationship also eliminates freight cost for transporting green lumber. Logan said, “We don’t bring in any outside lumber. We only represent our lumber.”

Josey Lumber and JoCo Lumber employ 45 people. The sawmill division, Josey Lumber, cuts approximately 10 to 11 million board feet a year that includes Hardwood lumber, cants and timbers. They manufacture Red and White Oak, Soft Maple, Ash, Poplar and Cypress.

The infeed inspection line to the trimmer was a welcome upgrade at Josey Lumber.
The infeed inspection line to the trimmer was a welcome upgrade at Josey Lumber.
The new Trimmer Outfeed at Josey Lumber from TS Manufacturing improves productivity.
The new Trimmer Outfeed at Josey Lumber from TS Manufacturing improves productivity.

Going back to the beginning, Joey Josey started in the forest products industry in the mid-1970’s, working for a friend who owned several sawmills. It was then that he realized his goal in life was to operate his own Hardwood sawmill. The owner of that large company admired his vision; however, he told Joey that he could not manage a job that he had never done. Joey took that advice to heart and worked his way through his friend’s company by initially pulling lumber and sweeping floors, later working as planer mill foreman, purchaser and dry kiln operator. He learned everything that he could about machinery, lumber grading, lumber purchasing and marketing. In the fall of 1983, Joey started his own Hardwood sawmill. He passed his work ethic on to his sons. Now, they are moving Josey Lumber and JoCo Lumber forward. 

For more information, call Josey Lumber Company at 252-826-5614.

By Paul Miller

Paul Miller President Miller Wood Trade Publications

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