“The goal is to create the most dependable and consistent unfinished wide plank flooring and cabinet components available, while treating our customers right.” ~ Mike Lewis, President, Lewis Lumber and Milling
With three generations of lumber experience under their tool belts, the Lewis family knows how to take care of its customers.
Founded over a decade ago in Dickson, TN, Lewis Lumber and Milling Inc. manufactures the Reliance Hardwood Flooring brand, as well as custom kitchen cabinet components. Specializing in wide width Hardwood plank flooring in long lengths, the company recently invested more than $15 million to renovate a 100,000-square-foot facility in Pennsylvania to better serve new and old customers alike.
President Mike Lewis, whose motto is to “consistency is king” purchased a facility in Clarion, PA, to keep up with growing demand. “Consistent products mean customers can depend on you time and time again. Being a reliable source for our customers is important to us,” he said.
An emphasis on reliability means controlling every part of manufacturing, starting with the purchase of green lumber from partner sawmills. Mike and his team include experts at each step of the manufacturing process, from wood drying, grading and machining, as well as warehousing and shipping. It’s also a family affair, with Mike Lewis working as president and Joe Lewis as vice president, Forrest Lewis focused on manufacturing as plant manager and both Libby Lewis-Clayton and Lee Lewis concentrating on Hardwood flooring sales.
Lewis Lumber and Milling opened the new facility to “mirror exactly what we are doing in Tennessee,” according to Mike. “I don’t want our customers to experience any type of manufacturing differences or learning curve from the new plant,” he said. “We are training a lot. We have spent a lot of time and energy making sure it is right.”
The purchase was prompted by the gradual growth in the client base and the company’s top notch unfinished solid Hardwood flooring and engineered Hardwood flooring. Flooring is available in widths 4-to-10 inches, with lengths available through 12 feet and is offered in plain sawn, rift sawn, quarter sawn, live sawn and herringbone.
“We have more sales than we can manufacture here in Tennessee,” Mike said. “Expanding was needed so we looked at premier locations for timber and lumber.”
Tom Edwards, CFO, said there is a three-fold strategy for expanding into a facility in the Northeastern U.S.
He noted that the company is now closer to the resource.
“People really like White Oak and Red Oak from Pennsylvania, New York and Northern Ohio, some Hickory and Cherry too,” Edwards said. “One of the reasons we weren’t running Red Oak (in Tennessee) is the color differences. The new plant location offers the opportunity to make great Red Oak flooring. The color is just unbelievable.”
He added that Pennsylvania is a prime area for timber for both divisions of the company.
“The timber available for the cabinet branch of the operation is more prevalent in the Northeast. There is only a certain amount of Hard Maple here in Tennessee,” he said. “So, we wanted to go where there is more Maple for our customers. It is one of the premier areas in the United States for timber.”
The third, and most important reason for opening a facility in Pennsylvania is that the company is closer to many of its customers.
Because so many of Reliance’s clients are in the Northeast, Mike said it made sense to open another location closer to them to expedite orders faster. “It will be cheaper freight for them,” he said. “The goal is to create the most dependable and consistent unfinished wide plank Hardwood flooring available, while treating our customers right.”
According to Mike, whether customers are looking for unfinished engineered Hardwood flooring or unfinished solid Hardwood flooring, Reliance products are manufactured with a goal to “always exceed industry grades, creating consistency, service, and value for customers.”
The expansion allows them to consistently meet customer needs, including custom orders with strict quality tolerances produced for cut to length precision cabinet components, according to Edwards. “One of our customers specifies their own custom grade components – grade 1, grade 2 and a paint grade,” Mike explained. “We must rip accordingly and when we mould into their patterns, we separate to their grades.” They are able to complete orders like this “all in one pass” largely thanks to the LICO Machinery used on site. “We are quite proud of the products we can offer with this expansion,” added Edwards.
The company’s flooring lines remain a point of pride. Sold primarily through distributors, “Reliance Hardwood Flooring is known for the consistent quality wide plank flooring,” explains Edwards, “but even more so, distributors are thrilled with lengths up to 12 feet long in some flooring. Not a lot of companies are set up to handle that.”
Among the high-profile jobs featuring Reliance Hardwood Floors, a recent one is the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame, a newly constructed facility.
“It is a huge building,” noted Edwards. “It was all five-inch rift-only White Oak engineered flooring. We provided 28,000 square feet of flooring. To get that much rift-only, I mean, it took us maybe three or four months.”
Working with a natural product like Hardwood provides challenges to manufacturing consistency, according to Mike.
To minimize variations, Reliance has set up systems to manage every part of the manufacturing process. From how the green lumber is dried to maintain flat and straight material, through the manufacturing process, and all the way through the company’s quality control specialists. Each flooring run is custom dry fit to ensure it meets the company’s strictest quality standards. “We make unfinished solid Hardwood flooring you can count on,” he noted.
One asset that the Lewis family relies on is a close partnership with a bevy of sawmills.
Edwards and Joe Lewis are responsible for buying all of the lumber for Reliance, which comes from about 75 sawmills.
“We are so picky,” Edwards said. “At different times we (buy from) 75 mills, focusing on purchasing Red and White Oak and Maple in 4/4 green lumber in Clarion.” Mike noted that he has worked with and for mills since 1987.
“We try to work together with the sawmills and pay a fair price. We work with them so it will be beneficial for us as well as them,” he said. “We can pay sawmills a little bit more to saw some of the lumber differently than their normal. It needs to be beneficial to us and them”.
“If we don’t have the mills,” he added, “we are not able to manufacture our product. We understand that and treat the mills accordingly, paying a fair price and making sure we pay our bills promptly. We pay before 10 days”.
“The main thing,” he concluded, “is to put the very best product we can out on the market for our customers.”
The company is NOFMA certified and a member of the National Wood Flooring Association, Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers Association, Kentucky Forest Industries Association, Pennsylvania Forest Products Association, and the Indiana Hardwood Lumbermen’s Association.
For more information, go to www.RelianceHardwoodFlooring.com.
