With patents on two unique chair designs and the connecting devices that link them, Northland Church Furniture continues to keep pace with the way that its customers require new seating solutions for church meetings.
Luck, Wis.– When Don Lundquist began looking for investment opportunities in the area where he owned lake property, he recognized the staying power and potential of Northland Church Furniture, which was a 10-year-old company at the time, and situated in this small community of 1,300 residents.
“I enjoy the hands-on work and creating as a design engineer and I enjoy traveling, so buying Northland was an ideal fit for me,” he said. He purchased the company in 1971, at a time when there were several competing church furnishing manufacturers throughout the tri-state area of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan.
“Back 75 years ago, there used to be cabinet shops doing church furniture every 50 miles or so around here,” said Lundquist, who is Northland’s president. “The company’s been operating since 1961. Today, we’re the only church furniture manufacturer around for miles.”
As the name attests, Northland Church Furniture manufactures pews, chairs, altars, pulpits and lecterns in a variety of styles. Lundquist holds the patent on two of the company’s chair designs and a patent on chair connecting devices. He accounts for his company’s ongoing success where others have failed with three words – “attention to quality.”
In addition to chairs for congregational seating, Northland Church Furniture also produces seating, pulpits, altars and lecterns.
“We use only solid Northern Red Oak, no exceptions,” said Lundquist, citing the species’ durability and depth of grain character when worked as a solid piece of wood. “And a solid wood piece holds screws in a way that ensures a much longer lasting product.”
Lundquist noted that this commitment to solid wood construction is a key ingredient to the company’s longevity, because Northland’s products stand up under the wear and tear of congregational use. “Other companies that are out of business now have built church pews with Red Oak veneer on the arms and ends, but over time, they just don’t last,” said Lundquist. “We may not land a church’s business the first time around. But when a church’s furniture doesn’t stand up under the heavy usage, most of them come looking for quality they can trust. They find that we’re still here, still making quality products.”
Northland Church Furniture is a family operation, with Don’s wife Mary acting as secretary/bookkeeper. His son Lonnie serves as shop foreman over a team of 10 employees. Bob Brown serves as a regional salesperson for Northland, operating out of a second sales office in Milwaukee, Wis. All members of the team of 10 production employees have had long careers of crafting wood products. “Plus, I personally inspect every order before it goes out,” said Lundquist.
Northland’s clean, contemporary lines have become the aesthetic focal point for church services across the nation.
Northland Church Furniture operates for 40 hours a week, Monday through Friday. The company’s production facility spans 10,000 square feet, with an additional 4,000 square feet devoted to administrative facilities. “About 10 percent of our space is for storage,” said Lundquist. In a year’s time, the company will transform 120,000 board feet of Northern Red Oak into church furnishings for customers across the nation.
Lundquist orders Northern Red Oak pre-dried in rough-cut, hit-and-miss dimensions, with most coming in 4/4 and 5/4 dimensions. “We use grades from Select to No. 2, depending on orders we have,” he said. “At one time, pews formed all of our product orders, but today, chairs are what we’re making the most. We do have dry kilns, but it’s more cost-effective for Krueger Lumber, where we get our lumber currently, to do the drying for us on the 4/4 and 5/4 we get in for chairs. Churches like the flexibility that chairs offer in setting up a meeting space, more so than pews, so we’ve adapted accordingly.”
Equipment used in transforming the lumber into church furnishings includes a Gates America planer, straight-rip saw, Burlington wide-belt sanders, cut off saws, sanders, gluing jigs and a variety of finishing equipment. Material is ripped into sticks of different widths for various projects and then processed with the planer and sander. Further cuts eliminate defects and process the stock to the required dimensional lengths for projects, then configured with required shapes and angles. After drilling appropriate holes, counter bores and dressing edges with beveling and sanding, all pieces are pre-finished before the project is assembled. Products are shipped by hired common carrier or on one of Northland’s two trucks with six available trailers.
Northland Church Furniture’s commitment to solid wood construction using only Red Oak allows its products to stand the test of time under rigorous congregational use.
Northland’s customer base spans the continental U.S. and also extends into Alaska. “Word of mouth has served us very well,” said Lundquist. “In addition to many churches in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan, we’ve provided furniture for churches in Texas, Alaska, one in McLean, Va., where Ethel Kennedy sat in our pews, New Mexico and quite a few in the city of Chicago.”
Lundquist recognizes that his customer base represents the same commitment to longevity as Northland’s working emphasis on producing quality products of beauty and durability. “Our church customers know that our chairs will last as long as the pews we have built in the past,” he said. “Often, we get repeat business from churches that are adding on or remodeling, looking to expand in the same style with furnishings we supplied from a previous order.”
Because of Northland’s quality materials and workmanship, the company is able to work with a church’s old pews built by Northland, strip them down to their natural finish, shorten them up if needed and incorporate them into a new order, saving money on church expansions. “These churches that have stood the test of time know that our company will still be here, too,” said Lundquist.
For more information about Northland Church Furniture, visit the company’s Web site at www.northlandchurchfurniture.com or contact them at: 715-472- 2322.
Although Northland Church Furniture produces seating with cushions, the full beauty of solid wood construction shines through in this larger congregational setting. And, because the company has remained in business through the lifetimes of many customer churches, if this congregation chooses to add cushions at a later time, Northland will still be able to provide them.
