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DLH Nordisk Specializes In Exotic, Domestic Species

By Gary Miller

Stewart Sexton is the president of DLH Nordisk Inc.’s headquarters in North America, which is located in Greensboro, N.C.
Greensboro, North Carolina—For over 20 years, DLH Nordisk Inc., headquartered here, has provided quality timber products in Genuine Mahogany and other imported species, as well as domestic species of lumber, to customers throughout the world.

Established in 1986, DLH Nordisk Inc. is a subsidiary of the Denmark-based DLH Group, which also includes PW Hardwood LLC in Brookville, Pa., and Inter-Continental Hardwoods Inc. in Currie, N.C.

DLH Nordisk acquired EAC Timber Americas Inc., also located in Greensboro, N.C., in 2000. Both were established in Greensboro due to its location of a large majority of furniture manufacturers in the area at that time. When a lot of the furniture industry moved overseas, DLH Nordisk expanded its product line to include rough lumber and decking, wood deck tiles, deck systems, balusters, dimension stock, dowels, broom/brush handles, brush blocks, furniture parts, picture frame mouldings, trailer/truck flooring and flat/fluted “Apitong” kiln drying sticks.

But, the company prides itself most on its iDeck brand decking. Predominantly made with Ipe, iDeck is available in a wide range of hardwood species and dimensions. iDeck is produced from naturally durable species that stand up to outside conditions without the use of pressure-treating chemicals.

The sales staff for DLH Nordisk Inc.’s imported lumber and other forest products include Ralph Elliott, Jens Bursche, Mike Morton, Tommy Stepp, Christian Mengel, and Tim McGill.
The iDeck tile system uses pre-bored durable hardwood tiles and a plastic connection system called iConnect to produce a deck surface. “Using this system allows you to create a wooden deck on any solid, well-drained surface,” said Stewart Sexton, president of DLH Nordisk Inc. “With iDeck tiles, you can create a wooden surface, which will give you a secure feeling, and makes your pool or pondside a safer place for bare feet.”

As an imported and domestic hardwood provider, DLH Nordisk also specializes in “Apitong” kiln drying sticks, which are made out of Keruing, Balau, Kapur and other Indonesian hardwoods. The species, which are known for dense, long fibers and interlocked grain, provide a stronger, more durable kiln drying stick. In addition, the company also sources kiln sticks in Brazilian Ipe, Massaranduba and Cumaru.

“Since these sticks are cut from straight butt logs, they are free of knots with very minor grain deviation,” Sexton said. “They are durable, decay resistant and stay straight even after multiple uses at high temperatures of over 200 degrees.”

DLH Nordisk sells veneer also and it is marketed through Doug Holmberg, who maintains an office in Prospect, Ky. Imported plywood sales are done by Stuart McDiarmid and Jacob Boles, who work for DLH A/S in Copenhagen, Denmark. But the two men have their offices at DLH Nordisk’s North American headquarters in Greensboro, N.C.

Melissa Kinney, Melissa Poteat, Joey Jewell, Linda Rumley and Sandy Smith provide the sales support for the company’s forest product sales people.
Originally focused purely on Genuine Mahogany, DLH Nordisk today processes and sells South American and African species of lumber such as Jatoba, Virola, Banak, Cumala, Andiroba, Purpleheart, Spanish Cedar, Ipe, Cumaru and many others. The domestic species of lumber that their hardwood lumber concentration yard with dry kilns in Brookville, Pa., (called PW Hardwood LLC), handles includes Red and White Oak, Poplar, Cherry, Ash, Walnut, Hard and Soft Maple, Yellow Birch and others.

For its imported forest products, DLH Nordisk utilizes the Port of Savannah, Ga. The company has a warehouse in Statesboro, Ga., where decking, flooring and some kiln-dried lumber is stocked. DLH Nordisk generally uses outside facilities for custom kiln drying including Huntersville Hardwoods in Huntersville, N.C., where the company also keeps a warehouse.

DLH Nordisk’s customer base includes all types of woodworking plants (like the manufacturers of furniture, cabinets, millwork, flooring, etc.), distribution yards and others.

As part of his responsibilities as president, Sexton concentrates on imported decking, lumber and flooring sales in the United States and Canada, and helps manage the DLH Group’s office in Guyana.

Sexton is joined at DLH Nordisk by Christian Mengel, who serves as the executive vice president. Mengel oversees sourcing of the firm’s lumber and machined wood products from Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. Mengel is also currently the president of the International Wood Products Assoc., based in Alexandria, Va. Mengel speaks several different languages including English, Danish, German and some Portuguese.

In addition to Sexton and Mengel, the sales team includes: Jens Bursche, who handles South American product sales including Brazilian flooring and decking; and Tim McGill, Tommy Stepp, Mike Morton and Ralph Elliott, who handle the imported lumber sales for DLH Nordisk Inc. Other employees include: Kenn Rahbek, Wendy Wilson, Kristie Kennedy and Jesper Christensen, who work in the accounting and human resources department of the company; and Melissa Kinney, Melissa Poteat, Joey Jewell, Linda Rumley and Sandy Smith, who provide sales support.

Kenn Rahbek, Wendy Wilson, Kristie Kennedy and Jesper Christensen work in the firm’s accounting and human resources department.
The DLH Group, which celebrated its 100th birthday earlier this year, maintains offices in 34 countries across the globe, and has more than 3,500 employees worldwide.

The company traces its history back to Harald Kjaer, who as a young man in the timber industry left his employer and took over his own consignment of Pine. Kjaer quit his job following an argument with his boss, who said he paid too much for the consignment. Although Kjaer was two years under the minimum age for a trading license, which is 25, he succeeded in getting a license, and the operation known today as DLH was born.

The DLH Group, which is led by Jørgen Møller-Rasmussen, president and chief executive officer, is today a U.S. $1.2 billion company shipping over 1 million cubic meters of wood worldwide annually.

As has been mentioned previously, DLH Nordisk owns two divisions in the United States called PW Hardwood LLC and Inter-Continental Hardwoods Inc.

PW Hardwood LLC, headquartered in Brookeville, Pa., began business in 1915 as Plunkett-Webster Lumber Co., and was purchased by the DLH Group in 2002. PW Hardwood has eight dry kilns and this operation, led by Andrew Helmus, concentrates on processing domestic lumber and selling it to customers worldwide.

Inter-Continental Hardwoods Inc., based in Currie, N.C., was acquired through a merger with tt Timber Group of Basel, Switzerland, in 2006. The operation provides over 30 species of tropical hardwoods, and specializes in imported hardwood lumber, flooring and decking. Inter-Continental Hardwoods, under the direction of Tom Herga, has a 20-acre lumberyard with approximately 300,000 board feet of kiln capacity per charge at this location.

One of the DLH Group’s main goals as it moves into the future is the sustainability of its forests and wood products. The company has set short, medium and long-term goals including: to know the origin of all wood; to become a global leader in certified tropical hardwoods; and to trade and produce wood products, which originate from sustainably managed forests.

Jacob Boles, shown here, assists Stuart McDiramid in selling imported plywood for DLH A/S in Copenhagen, Denmark, though their offices are located at DLH Nordisk Inc.’s North American headquarters in Greensboro, N.C.
The DLH Group manages 1.3 million hectares of tropical rainforest in the Republic of Congo. Approximately 750,000 hectares have been certified through the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and the firm plans to have the remaining hectares certified within the next two years. The tract is one of the largest continuing FSC-certified natural tropical forest areas in the world.

In addition to its own FSC-certified forests, the DLH Group offers FSC-certified timber from suppliers in North and South America, Europe, Russia and Asia, and works actively to motivate more suppliers to become certified. The operation offers timber certified according to many forest certification schemes including the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, the Canadian Standards Assoc., Malaysian Timber Certification Council, Timber Legality and Traceability Verification, Origine et Légalité des Bois, Verification of Legal Origin, and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes.

DLH utilizes the Good Supplier Program (GSP) to evaluate its suppliers’ environmental performance. The brief questionnaire asks suppliers whether they own their forest concessions, what percentage of that source is from known origin and if the supplier can supply certified and verified timber.

For more information, contact DLH Nordisk Inc. at 800-688-2882, visit www.dlhusa.com or trade.us@dlh-group.com.

 
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