Beaverton, OR—Third generation, family-owned and operated Prime Forest Products, located here, supplies Cedar, Douglas Fir, Ponderosa Pine, Eastern White Pine and Hemlock – with an emphasis on sustainability.
With a sales office in Beaverton, a manufacturing facility in Springfield, Prime Forest Products does custom manufacturing in Sweet Home, OR. The company averages 18 million board feet annually of industrial through clear grade. “Our lumber comes in rough green and we dry it, surface it and grade it out,” President Brad Rodakowski explained. “Thirty percent of our overall markets are in exports to Europe, Northern Africa, the UK, Holland, Belgium, Japan and Vietnam. The remainder is in North American markets.”
The specific markets served by Prime Forest Products include door and window manufacturers and wholesale distributors. “All of our material is sourced regionally except for the Eastern White Pine,” Rodakowski stated. As for what sets Prime Forest Products apart from their friendly competitors he said, “We focus on the specialty markets. What we do is a niche and there are only a few of us that do what we do. Some of our customers prefer that we don’t put our name on the paper wrap because they don’t want competition regarding where they get their wood. We have built a reputation of trust with our clients and they know that we’re here for the long haul.”
Prime Forest Products also is setting itself apart from many competitors by emphasizing sustainability for the long haul – “for the health of our people, planet and a win-win for all partnerships,” noted Terree Rodakowski, Vice President and Sustainability Director, as well as Brad’s wife. “To be a responsible business partner in the value chain for our customers and for the long-term benefit of our vendors, we have made the decision to accept the call to action to change our business model to be in harmony with sustainability. Over 75 percent of the company’s sales are sustainably certified wood via FSC, PEFC, and SFI.
“In the second half of 2020, we made the decision to participate in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) out of the United Kingdom,” Terree observed. “This was an eye-opening experience for our Prime Forest team. It was similar to learning a new language. We have a steep learning curve ahead of us. We are ready for the challenge. In the CDP, we were pleasantly surprised to discover we were doing a lot of things well; we just hadn’t connected all of the actions together scientifically or directly to the sustainability guidelines.
“We truly are a company that likes to walk our talk,” she stated. “We believe in putting the health of people, the planet, and win-win partnerships first in all decisions we make in our business. These practices paid off with our CDP results for 2019.”
Terree continued, “This year, 2021, we will be measuring our 2020 carbon emissions. We have contracted with an outside consulting company to educate us on best practices when it comes to competency and sustainability practices. We will also be setting our science-based targets as a company for 2030 and beyond. We will be participating in the CDP Project for a second year.
“Our company tends to have a younger culture,” Terree noted. “One of the things we’re working hard at is to set it up for the next generation. Millennials are very passionate about giving back to the planet, not just showing up to work for a paycheck. Our team is about: I’m going show up and do my job, but I’m also going to live a healthy life. Our younger employees started the process, and that’s why it’s so important that we do sustainability. Our Prime team gave back to the planet by donating and privately funding organizations to replant twice as many trees in 2021 as we harvested and processed in 2020. This is what our culture demands.”
Prime Forest Products pays close attention to the lumber demands of its customers. The company’s facility in Springfield includes a cut up plant where they manufacture clear cut stock components for the door and window market. “We have chop saws and turntables at this location,” Brad explained. “We do our drying, surfacing and resawing at the Sweet Home location. Then the wood goes down to the Springfield plant for further processing before it is ready to be shipped out.”
Brad said relationships are key to maintaining long-term business partnerships. “We sit down with our customers, and we ask for their specific needs and wants,” he noted. “One of our advantages is being able to customize grades for our clients. We are always looking to start new product lines, so if we get an inquiry for something outside of the box, we’ll give it our all to make it happen.”
“The customer will give us the grade specs that they want, and we’ll type it up and go to the sawmill and work with the mill side by side to have them customize the grade for us,” Marketing Director/Product Specialist/Marketing Director of Sustainability Lucas Rodakowski added. “The thing is, we will take the downfall if it doesn’t work out, so the customer is getting what they want from the mill and by us taking the downfall we have other markets to go to with it. It really works well with the sawmill by doing it that way.”
Established in 2012 out of Brad’s garage, Prime Forest Products has grown into a company with multiple facilities and a number of employees. Brad explained, “I worked in the garage for two years, and then I hired an assistant, and soon after, another salesperson. We really started to branch out in 2014 and by 2016 we started to add more employees. We’ve done well because we are family-owned and operated. If we make a commitment and we find that we’re going to lose money, we’ve still got to go through with it because we stand by our word. Our word is gold.”
Key personnel at Prime Forest Products include: Brad, Lucas and Terree Rodakowski; Controller and CPA Dan Paldino; Product Specialists Mark Rodakowski, Ian Kelly and Mike Pittenger; Inventory and Trade Compliance Manager Tami Bauer; and Inventory Analyst Beth McClintock. “We have a really good team,” Brad said. “We do leadership programs a couple times a year for team building. We are family-oriented, and our employees’ health and family are important to us. Everyone here is part of our family and they each have a strong voice in the company.”
Prime Forest Products is a member of the North American Wholesale Lumber Association, the Global Buyers Mission, Friends of Trees and attends the Conscious Company Conference annually.
Learn more at www.primeforest.com.
