Sheoga Flooring Adapts To Shifting Customer Base, And Thrives
Located in Middlefield, Ohio, Sheoga Hardwood Flooring & Paneling Inc. purchases 5 million board feet of lumber annually in 4/4 Hard Maple, Hickory, Red and White Oak, Cherry, Walnut and Ash in FAS, Nos., 1, 2 and 3 Common.
Middlefield, Ohio–Sheoga Hardwood Flooring & Paneling, Inc. is one company that is going strong through this economic downturn.
In the past 10 years, the company has remained profitable despite the ups and downs in the marketplace. It purchases 5 million board feet of lumber annually in 4/4 Hard Maple, Hickory, Red and White Oak, Cherry, Walnut, Ash and Brazilian Cherry in FAS, No. 1 Common, No. 2 Common and No. 3 Common.
This company manufactures solid, random width plank flooring (unfinished and pre-finished) and paneling. The paneling has 3/32-inch beveled edges, making it suitable for interior walls and ceilings.
About two years ago, company leadership saw danger on the horizon, said President Pete Miller. It would no longer be business as usual. “Let’s just hang tight and not spend money in a big way,” the company’s leadership decided.
The company continued its ways of a strong work ethic and adapting its products to current styles.
As a result, not only has the bottom line been good, but the more than 45 employees have seen little disruption in their hours per week.
In 2009, the company went to a four-day work-week for about 10 weeks. “Other than that,” Miller said, “we’ve kept the crew going.
“We definitely feel it,” Miller said of the economy, “although we’ve been very fortunate. Our customer base has definitely been shifted.”
Sheoga manufactures solid, random width plank flooring and paneling.
Sheoga has tried to maintain its customer base of the past. However, one distributor filed bankruptcy. Making up for that loss, the company has seen a rise in sales on the East Coast and overseas, particularly in Asia. Sheoga products are sold in Canada, Singapore, Pakistan, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Greece. Sheoga’s vice president recently spent two weeks in Singapore on business, visiting their largest distributor’s on-going projects.
Particularly popular have been the company’s textured Hardwood flooring such as saw cut, hand scraped or wire brushed. The hand scraped flooring especially, has been in strong demand, both domestically and overseas.
The company was started in 1982, in the heart of an Amish community in Ohio. Miller had begun working in the forest products industry at age 15, stacking lumber and sweeping floors. In 1982, his supervisor suggested that they start a Hardwood flooring company. His employer, Steve Trudick, didn’t have time to run the new company. So that duty fell to Miller. A group of men invested $100,000 to start the business.
Within five years, the firm was doing so well that all the investors had their capital paid back.
In the early 1980s, Miller recalls, the flooring industry was starting to make a comeback. “I don’t think there was a better time to start a flooring company,” he said.
Originally, Sheoga leased equipment. Then its customer base grew and it purchased machinery as sales increased.
“We started out as a little lumber yard,” Miller said. “We had an interest to serve our local areas with Hardwood flooring and paneling. It’s just developed into a company that now produces flooring that’s being shipped worldwide today.”
The company buys green lumber and kiln-dries it in five American dry kilns with a 48,000-board-foot capacity each.
When the company was formed, it was suggested that it have an Amish-related name, due to the community in which it was located. That idea was not adopted. Miller, who is Amish, said, “I don’t feel we’re any better than anybody else.”
The firm’s official corporate name is Hardwood Flooring & Paneling, Inc. but as its customer base grew, clients wanted a brand name for better recognition.
The company is located in Ohio, where Native Americans had a name for raccoons: Sheauga. With the letters “au” changed to “o,” the name became “Sheoga.” And this name has achieved wide recognition, Miller said.
In the plant, most workers are Amish. When asked about the strong Amish work ethic, Miller noted that many Amish people were raised on farms. “We grew up knowing what physical labor is all about,” he commented. These Amish workers labor side-by-side with non-Amish employees, with “everybody digging in,” Miller added. “It takes all of us to make the team.”
The company buys green lumber and kiln-dries it in its five American dry kilns that each has a capacity of 48,000 board feet.
The rough mill layout was installed by Eagle Machine and includes a Yates American planer, a Progressive optimizing gang rip saw, an Eagle Machine optimizing cut up line, four Mattison 276 moulders and Hasko end matchers. The company uses Cat and Yale lift trucks and employs Hurst boilers as the energy system.
Sheoga Hardwood Flooring has been granted certification under NWFA’s Responsible Procurement Program (NWFA RPP) after successfully completing a third-party assessment by Scientific Certification Systems. Sheoga is entitled to use the U.S. Renewing Forest label and logo which recognizes the use of renewing U.S. Hardwoods in their products and their
Sheoga Hardwood Flooring has been granted certification under NWFA’s Responsible Procurement Program after successfully completing a third-party assessment by Scientific Certification Systems.
commitment to higher levels of environmental awareness and social performance. Their by-products, such as wood cut-offs and sawdust, are used to fire their 225,000 board foot capacity dry kilns and heat over 50,000 square feet of manufacturing, showroom and office space. The use of these by-products eliminates over 250,000 gallons of heating oil that would otherwise be consumed. Sheoga also participates in annual tree planting investments.
One other innovation the company has made has been in its lumber buying. Miller says that Sheoga bought lumber from suppliers who had provided superior lumber that helped build the company. In 2009, the company realized it couldn’t build enough products to use up all the lumber it bought. “It was difficult to say, ‘We don’t need your lumber anymore,’” Miller said. “We kept bringing it in.”
Sheoga began kiln-drying the excess green lumber and selling it to the public.
“Our main focus is still going to be on manufacturing our flooring, more so than lumber sales,” Miller said. The sale of lumber “is just going to help us keep our inventories better balanced.”
He added, “Our flooring is usually higher priced as we use better grades of lumber.” But once Sheoga is sold in a region and people find out what it’s like, “We stay there,” he said, and Sheoga gets “a lot of repeat business.”
Despite challenging economic times, Sheoga’s 45 employees have seen disruption in their work hours per week and continue to ensure quality product with hands-on expertise.
For more information on Sheoga Hardwood Flooring & Paneling, Inc., go to www.sheogaflooring.com.
