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neW prOducts

The 1980s

To mark this year’s 100th anniversary of The Merchant Magazine, we are looking back each month, decade by decade, at the advertisers that have long supported us and are still growing strong to this day.

This month we check in on the 1980s.

• Western Wood Preservers Institute, formed in 1947 to promote pressure treated lumber in the West, first advertised in The Merchant in January of 1980.

• RW Specialties was launched in 1965 and has steadily grown into a leading building material wholesaler in the Mountain West, with locations in Denver and Grand Junction, Co.; Casper, Wy.; and Salt Lake City, Ut. Its first Merchant ad: June 1981.

• California Timberline , Chino, Ca., was established in 1975 to wholesale industrial softwood and hardwood lumber. After starting to team with The Merchant in July 1981, Cal Timberline expanded into moulding, millwork and panels, becoming the exclusive distributor of Nusku products in 49 states.

• Gemini Forest Products announced its arrival to readers in July 1981, just after being founded in Los Alamitos, Ca., by Ted Pollard and Dale Bacon. The wholesaler specializes in industrial and treated products.

• States Industries, Eugene, Or., originated in 1966 as a manufacturer of walls panels— showcased in their September 1981 ad— before eventually concentrating on industrial hardwood plywood.

• Setzer Forest Products began in 1927 as an agricultural box manufacturing plant. Four generations of Setzers and 95 years later, the demand for housing materials now surpasses the need for vegetable crates. Consequently, the Setzer mills in Sacramento and Oroville, Ca., have become one of the West’s leading producers of MDF mouldings. The company first appeared in The Merchant in October 1981.

• Siskiyou Forest Products was started by Fred Duchi in 1974 as a remanufacturer/ wholesale distributor, as showcased in the July 1982 Merchant. The company now produces finish lumber as well as Reserve brand engineered siding and trim, at its 35-acre manufacturing plant in Anderson, Ca.

• Snavely Forest Products, Pittsburgh, Pa., was founded in 1902 and grew to five distribution locations by the time it was acquired in 2018 by Weekes Forest Products. Snavely first promoted its western DCs in The Merchant in December 1982.

• C&E Lumber Co., Pomona, Ca., traces its roots to 1954, when Jack Russi and George Callaway developed the first lodgepole pine tree stake—now the standard in the landscape industry. They began Bourbon Valley Co. (BVC) to produce doweled lodgepole pine posts, poles and rails, and in 1962 started C&E to distribute them, as first seen in The Merchant in May of 1983.

• Trinity River Lumber Co.’s sawmill in Weaverville, Ca., was originally built in 1947, destroyed by fire in 1952, and rebuilt two years later. It operated as Trin-Co Forest Products until 1974 when it was bought by CalPacific. The mill closed in 1981, then was purchased by the Schmidbauer family, remodeled and opened in 1983 as Trinity River with an announcement in The Merchant in July 1983.

• Plastmo in the late 1970s became the first company to successfully market vinyl rain gutters in North America, as spotlighted on the front cover of the June 1984 Merchant.

• Disdero Lumber Co. was founded in Portland, Or., in 1953 by seasoned industry wholesaler Al Disdero, who sold the company in 1976. The company first advertised in The Merchant in June of 1984. It relocated its distribution operation to Clackamas, Or., in 2002.

• Canfor began as Pacific Veneer, Vancouver, B.C., in 1938, adding milling operations through the next decade and in 1947 taking on the new name Canadian Forest Products Ltd. Aggressive growth followed, including selling into the U.S. through a network of wholesalers (at right, November 1984). Canfor began establishing its now-formidable foothold in the Southeast U.S. in 2006 with its purchase of New South.

• Utah Wood Preserving, Woods Cross, Ut., has been producing quality pressure treated wood products since 1978—and advertising them in The Merchant Magazine since April 1985.

• Velux’s founder, Danish inventor Villum Kann Rasmussen, came up with the idea that would transform dark attics into livable spaces full of daylight and fresh air. In 1942, he patented the first roof window, called VELUX—VE short for ventilation and LUX Latin for light. Within a few short decades, VELUX had opened roofs across the world, including domestically through VELUXAmerica, which appeared in The Merchant in May of 1985.

• Western Red Cedar

Lumber Association

was founded in 1954 as the “voice of the cedar industry.” First advertising its promotional materials to dealers in The Merchant in June of 1985, the non-profit currently represents 27 quality producers of western red cedar lumber products in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

• Ganahl Lumber is reportedly California’s oldest lumber dealer, founded in 1884, anchored in Anaheim since 1904, and now with 10 locations under the fifth generation of Ganahls. It added a milling division in the late 1940s, as promoted in The Merchant in July 1985.

• Reliable Wholesale Lumber, founded by the Higman family in 1971 in Temple City, Ca., began a hearty expansion just after debuting in The Merchant in August 1985, that included opening five additional yards over the ensuing 20 years. Today, the Higman family operates lumberyards in Huntington Beach and Riverside, Ca.

• Windsor Mill was launched by Ray Flynn in 1971 to mill western species into millwork, such as the paneling shown in the October 1985 Merchant. In 1996, it introduced its now-namesake WindsorONE primed radiata pine.

• Jones Wholesale Lumber has distributed lumber, EWP, panel products, and building materials from Lynwood, Ca., since 1976. The company first partnered with The Merchant Magazine in April 1986.

• Conrad Forest Products , North Bend, Or., entered the wood preserving industry in 1958 and on to the ad pages of The Merchant in May 1986. It currently offers ACZA, CCA, CA-C, Qnap, borates and FRTW.

• EL & EL Wood Products, Chino, Ca., was founded in 1966 by Mr. Lindy and Mr. Lynch (hence the L&L name). Soon after, Robert Ward joined the team, eventually buying the company and helping to grow it into one of the largest distributors of moulding and millwork products in California, Nevada and Arizona. Cathy Vidas has been president since 1991. First advertising in The Merchant in June 1986, EL & EL agreed earlier this year to be acquired by Metrie.

• Sause Bros. Ocean Towing started in the 1930s with one small wooden tug and has grown to a fleet of over 60 modern, powerful tugs and barges. A specialty from the early years (as seen in the July 1986 Merchant) has been hauling logs and finished lumber from the Pacific Northwest.

• Holtec pioneered the concept of precise cutting of lumber packs in the 1960s and in the meantime has installed over 8,000 systems around the world. Initially—and for decades afterwards—the systems incorporated Stihl saws, as promoted in Holtec’s first ad in The Merchant Magazine in November of 1986.

• Atrium Windows & Doors was formed in 1948 and from its facilities in Dallas, Tx., and Welcome, N.C., grew into one of North America’s largest producers of vinyl doors and windows. After first appearing in The Merchant in April 1987, Atrium merged with PlyGem in 2018, after both companies were acquired simultaneously by private equity firm CD&R.

• Woodfold Marco, Forest Grove, Or., established in 1957, specializes in accordion folding and wood roll-up doors for commercial and residential construction. It showed off its colorful merchandiser in The Merchant in August 1987.

• Woodway Products began in 1980 as LWO Corp., Portland, Or., to offer a premium line of Woodway brand lattice and paneling. The mantra has always been well-designed wood products that are durable, easy to install, and beautiful to look at, as stressed in its initial Merchant ad in May 1988. The product line was acquired by Bowers Forest Products in 2019.

• Big Creek Lumber Co. , Davenport, Ca., got its official start in 1946 when Frank McCrary and his two sons, Bud and Lud, returned from overseas service in World War II and opened a “homemade mill” with brother-in-law Homer Trumbo. Today, Big Creek’s modern sawmill cuts, planes and processes 100,000 bd. ft. of lumber a day. It also owns vast timberland and five Pro Dealer retail yards. Big Creek debuted in The Merchant in November 1988.

• Permapost Products Co., Hillsboro, Or., has been a full-service supplier of fabricated and treated forest products since its genesis in the 1950s. It first ran in The Merchant in April of 1989.

• Bohannon Lumber, Orange, Ca., is a 40+-year-old office wholesaler operated by brothers Dan and Dale Bohannon, that first teamed with The Merchant in October of 1989.

• Weber Plywood & Lumber was founded by Don Weber in 1958, specializing in hardwood plywood and other panel products. Its first Merchant ad was a Christmastime thank-you letter to customers in December of 1989.

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