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Managing Twin Wood Products Companies
14 Plays1 year ago
Join KayCee and KelCee Hallstrom, the dynamic twin duo behind Zip-O-Log Mills and Zip-O-Laminators, as they discuss their experience working in the family sawmill and custom glulam beam plant. They share their journey in the timber industry, the importance of communication and teamwork, and the challenges and successes they've faced along the way. Discover how they are breaking barriers and making their mark in an industry undergoing significant change and challenges. Don't miss this inspiring conversation on managing two wood products companies.
https://zipolog.com/
https://zipolaminators.com/
#woodworld
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Transcript
Introduction and Family Legacy
00:00:00
Speaker
I have so much respect for every sawmill that has survived to this point. We are four generations. How many people can say they work with their dad and their grandpa in the same building? Today, we're talking to Casey and Kelsey Halstrom, the dynamic twin duo behind a family sawmill and custom glue lamb bean plant. Zippo log mills and Zippo laminators. When men have to say, it's so nice to see women here, to me, that's cringy.
00:00:27
Speaker
They share some hilarious and also thoughtful perspectives on their own career path, growing up in the family business, transitioning into leadership roles, what they've learned along the way. Those are the people you need, but you got to keep them hungry. And it's fun to have those people that go, I want more, I want more. It doesn't matter what industry you're in. And the importance of communicating the career possibilities that the timber industry
Challenges and Identity in the Timber Industry
00:00:51
Speaker
offers.
00:00:51
Speaker
Sawdust is just man glitter, right?
00:00:58
Speaker
Welcome to the Wood World Podcast. This episode with us today, we have Casey and Kelsey, they're twins. A lot of really cool stories that they have experienced in their family business. Zippo log mills and Zippo laminators. Have a really exciting story. We've worked with you all for quite some time. Jessica, love for you to take it away.
00:01:24
Speaker
Okay, well, first of all, he just mentioned that y'all are twins. And I feel like there's like a twin hierarchy. I am not a twin. But I have a set. And they're just like the regular identical ones. But there's like a hierarchy. There's twins in their class that are fraternal. It's a boy and a girl. And I was like, Yeah, you know, the Terry's, whereas everyone calls them the twins. Um, so yeah. Okay, so tell me are y'all y'all are identical?
00:01:52
Speaker
Yep, we are identical mirror twins. So for those who don't know, identical mirror twins are when the egg splits, but then you are reflective images. So for example, I'm left-handed and my sister Kelsey is right-handed. And so like even our calyx would be opposite, even losing one tooth on one side than the other, just twins weirdness times two.
00:02:16
Speaker
and so like so like Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen for the famous twins those are mere twins you can see it in their videos when they pick up the phones there are uh opposite hands uh in our high school class actually we only had 135 in the class and we had four sets of twins
00:02:33
Speaker
What is in the water? Something's in the water. Yeah, something's in the water. But I think it's definitely more exciting when you're in college, especially if you go to separate colleges or you get older, than you kind of really appreciate. Because you're forced to do all this stuff together, especially if you're identical.
00:02:50
Speaker
of like same sports, same camps, all the stuff. And so getting our individuality took until our college time to really get that started. And then,
Leadership and Team Dynamics
00:03:00
Speaker
and because I finished school earlier, I got a chance to be in production for stopping Kelsey was part time.
00:03:09
Speaker
School and work so she was kind of kept in the admin area when she first started and so I was out on the floor so I got to build those relationships I got to have the experience and then Kelsey comes through a couple years later and that put some complexities in her experience because they were used to me
00:03:29
Speaker
And but they see the same person coming in, but very different personality wise and experience wise. So that was that was one of the first struggles with us working in the same place because initially Kelsey was at the cross arm company and I was at the sawmill. So there really wasn't any crossover. But then when she started moving over to the sawmill side, she started an admin, then we got her out to the
00:03:54
Speaker
to production also, just so she could experience that. But again, that was years after me, but still those people were just used to me, then they experienced a whole new person that looked exactly the same. We're still the owner's kids, like we first started.
00:04:09
Speaker
But we also weren't afraid to get our hands dirty and be in the like, we started at 530 when they started, we didn't have princess hours, like, like, that was that one that have gone well, we knew that, and we were willing to do it because that's just part of how we grew up. And that's how you learn a business is by being in it with everyone else. Well, I think that there's a uniqueness that especially strong women, not unlike yourself, like,
00:04:34
Speaker
There's a fine line that we have to walk of being soft and having a personality, but also being able to stay on task and being able to get things done. Is that something that y'all have experienced as you come up through and as you've tried to make the company your own? I have a different personality type from my dad and my sister.
00:04:59
Speaker
I lead with my emotions. I bring a different perspective to things. Again, it's not that I never use logic, it's just that my first route is emotion. That's a different type of personality that our families use, that the industries use too. In a way, it helps me stand out in a different way. I have employees that tell me almost too much.
00:05:26
Speaker
But I'm also honored that they I remind them like, hey, you don't have to tell me that detail, like, oh, no, it's cool. So I'm, I take it as a badge of honor that people tell me that kind of stuff and that I feel like
00:05:39
Speaker
It makes it every day and I'm genuinely interested and I can show that to a person that's talking to me at a trade show or that kind of thing. So I would say like my personal growth has been really just finding my place because there hasn't been a place for a personality type like me in this industry, but there is a place for emotion. There is a place for the human side. And that's where our superpowers as a family owned business is if we lose the heart of a family owned business, like that's,
00:06:09
Speaker
That's most of the appeal. All right, you gotta follow that one up, sister. Dang it, I should've gone first. I was like, she should go first. Well, so much for thinking about people. Just you.
00:06:27
Speaker
I mean, so like what Kelsey said, like, you know, I, I truly value the family owned experience as well, because that's the feedback we receive is that we don't want, they don't want to just be seen as a number like that. They're seen as a person. And I definitely see them as people. I may not know as much personally as Kelsey would know.
00:06:47
Speaker
But I, I'm able to, that's my goal is to, are they being safe? How's the production? How can I make their job easier? So that's how I show my caring is just in a different way. So again, it's all, it's, it's all encompassing caring about the people because we know in the very end, you can have the, and we say this all the time, you can have the best equipment, you can pay for the best database.
00:07:14
Speaker
But if you don't have the people to run it that you that you trust and that you make their job easier, and they're there, they are the value, like they are the greatest investment we have. And that's not going to change even with automation and all that stuff. So I truly believe that in caring for the company, like the machinery, getting the best machinery, safest machinery,
00:07:38
Speaker
making the job easier for our employees. That helps enhance their performance, their production, because again, our main goal is we want them to come home in the same condition they came to work in. They all have their families.
00:07:54
Speaker
And because we do, but we also want to be the best and we want to create the best atmosphere, environment, product, service. And then that starts with our people. Like if we don't take care of our people, then how can we show that we take care of customers but not our people?
Growth and Opportunities in Timber
00:08:12
Speaker
It kind of seems to me like y'all being the mirror of one another is also in how you're running your business. Is that something that
00:08:24
Speaker
really contributes to the success that you were cognizant of, or is that something that you've just kind of leaned into as a default, like this is who we are, so we have to do it this way? I think it's something that isn't fully realized yet. I think we're still kind of fledglings at this point when thinking about how do we make that our own personal leadership style, because our dad,
00:08:54
Speaker
great, great business mind. He wouldn't be where he was if he wasn't intelligent. I mean, we love seeing him work and do his thing, but we aren't him.
00:09:04
Speaker
So we have to create our own voice and just getting comfortable with that where in a society and how you're raised to be, oh, be in the background. Don't be pushy. Don't be, you know, as a woman. I think that resonates with me is that I was always in learning mode. I'm always in observing learning mode, but now it's
00:09:28
Speaker
I got to step forward and actually share my ideas and make decisions, which I have no problem doing with now. But that took a lot of time to gain the confidence to do that. But it goes both ways. You got to have the people you're working with be open to it, and you got to know that that's an opportunity for me. If you can do the job, that's all I care about. But if women don't know that that opportunity is there, then it's not going to work.
00:09:58
Speaker
So, and that manufacturing, you're going to get a good living. I mean, our starting wage is $21 an hour. So it's not like it's minimum wage and your blood, sweat and tears is for minimum wage. Like you are being paid because the job is hard, the entry level.
00:10:17
Speaker
But the people are great. If you have the best team out there and you're all busting it out together, I mean, I've been there. There's a cross up. We all dive in and we do that. We unplug the blower when the blower's plugged because you got to get production going and you got to do your part and you're part of a system. You can't be a show off and shove all this wood down the line and think, oh, I look good because I was able to get this wet through fast, but then I screwed up for everybody down river.
00:10:44
Speaker
You know, it's a team effort, team atmosphere. And I've always believed there's a place for everybody, just like Kelsey was saying, too, is you need that person that can be at the lug loader and can make sure the wood is in the lug every day. And that's all they do. They clock in, clock out.
00:11:04
Speaker
I forget what book it was, but they call those rock stars because they're consistent. They're who you need. They're supported. They're fine. But you also need your shooting stars, right? The ones that aren't satisfied with just being on the breakdown hoist. They want to learn the planer and feed. They want to learn grading. They want to learn trade chasing. They want to work the stacker. They want to run the head rake.
00:11:27
Speaker
Those are the people you need, but you got to keep them hungry, and it's fun to have those people that go, I want more, I want more. It doesn't matter what industry you're in. It's very rare to have someone go, hey, I need more stuff to do. And what do you do to encourage that, Casey?
00:11:44
Speaker
So at the sawmill in particular, so most everyone, about 95% of anyone who's an operator within the sawmill came from the green chain. There are some that come from packaging, but most of the time they have to start on the green chain. And if they can make the units the right number of layers and the right pieces and pull it in the right grades, and they go, hey, I'm interested in advancing, what do we do? Well, you can be a grader.
00:12:12
Speaker
So then you work to be a grader, and then, hey, I want to learn more, okay, you're going to be off-bear, and you're going to look at pieces, and then you'll move to the trimmer operator, and then you'll move your way up in machine centers, and because we are not a high production sawmill, we are a low production, but high quality, like we're looking for free of hard timber, so.
00:12:33
Speaker
I would say quality over quantity. So in order for an operator in the sawmill to get full pay, they have to be certified in three separate grades with the PLIB. So the Pacific Lumber Inspection Bureau. So third party needs to have their card, need to maintain their card with audits. But in order to get full pay there, you need to be certified because again, we are all quality control at this company. It doesn't matter where, if you're at the planner, if you're at the land plan, if you're at the sawmill,
00:13:03
Speaker
quality, quality, quality. That is, that's the only thing that matters, is obviously, well, safety, quality, and production. So you gotta do it safely, you gotta make it correct, because that's all we have. That's the only difference, we have all our products the same, but all we can provide is quality and service.
00:13:23
Speaker
So that is, and it has to do with the people. And if the machinery is down, you know, our dad instilled in us, you know, we would rather take the hit of buying more spares so we don't have downtime. We have excellent uptime at the sawmill. Like it's over 99% uptime. And so in order to do that, we have an excellent maintenance crew, which we also do a program with the community college, Lane Community College is,
00:13:53
Speaker
if someone's interested in being a millwright, which those guys come from Green Chain, those guys sometimes come from the outside, that if they go to Lane and they pass their class, we will 100% reimburse them with a C or better. And then they can also work here and get their hours, because we have certified millwrights that can sign for their hours, and our general manager is ahead of that.
00:14:21
Speaker
Everyone except for one of our mill rights right now, it came from the green chain and went through our program. We are still in the, we need women pioneers still in this industry. We are a lot better than we were even just Casey's tenure. Like when she first started going to conventions, like the percentage of women is increasing every year. And then women being in power positions. Like, I mean, like, so we are seeing improvement
00:14:50
Speaker
And also, this is my advice I give to any female, like we had a woman that just joined a sales team and she was really nervous. And we happened to be talking to her and we said, hey, just be yourself. Cause the more genuine come across this industry is full of genuine people. And when you aren't, you're on a blacklist and everyone knows that. So your reputation is very important in this industry. And as far as your question about hearing these stories,
00:15:19
Speaker
I love that we hire from the inside. There is a little bit of a ladder, and I would say some people, it's not the tallest ladder, because again, we're not the biggest company. We have under 200 employees, and we have four locations, but there's only so far if you can go. Our supervisors are young.
00:15:38
Speaker
hopefully decades left till they retire. So that's another thing too. So I can imagine some people leave because like, okay, there's nowhere I can move up here. I'm going to move on. And as long as being on good terms, we have brought people back multiple times. There are people that leave and realize, Hey, the grass really isn't greener on the other side and they beg to come back. So that's a really cool as well to add on to our success with our apprenticeship program. Or you have people that we had to let go because of substance issues.
00:16:06
Speaker
And they completely understood. And a few years later, they came back and they proved that they were recovering and doing well. And they are. And they're very thankful for the second chance. So I think that's what makes us special. We're not this mystery corporation running this company. People get to see us around. We're not just these mystery owners. And I think that's really special.
00:16:32
Speaker
Like Casey just won, she got nominated in one young lumber person of the year in December for the Portland Wholesale Lumber Association. That's huge. And it's so cool that it was, again, it was a woman and it was Casey because she was out and about in the industry for years. And then I came along and again, different personality, but it's, but what a cool person to follow behind. Like she leaves a great reputation behind every nothing but glowing reviews for her. And I'm so proud of her.
00:17:04
Speaker
You know, I'm still on here, right? I thought you cut out. How does that kind of work together as you're propelling this business as the next generation, this business forward? I haven't been out in the social world as much as Casey, but just the effect of Casey being out there first, I think was the good was the best choice because she is
00:17:31
Speaker
more extroverted and more chatty with you. I mean, I'm an extroverted introvert. So I like to observe first. Yeah, I like to observe and then I move in. And that's not probably the best when it's like the face of a company. So that having her out there first to
00:17:47
Speaker
to warm up the crowd, I guess, to say, was the best part.
Sustainability and Public Engagement
00:17:53
Speaker
Because, I mean, it makes some funny moments. Like, I've had men come up to hug me and say hi, and I'm like, hi, I don't know you. So that's been really interesting. And that's happened more than once. I've been to a trade show this distance last November. They're talking to me, and they're looking at my face like, why are you acting like you don't know me? I'm like, because I don't. So, yeah, it creates some interesting moments.
00:18:17
Speaker
So, I mean, to get it from my point of view, I think it's cringier. Personally, when people talk of when men have to say, it's so nice to see women here, or they make a big show of it, like, to me, that's cringy. Where if Kelsey gets recognized, I'm thrilled. Like, especially, I mean, especially if it's like, I know she worked so hard on this, and I'm so glad that she got recognized.
00:18:47
Speaker
But you're not gonna get away from the twin thing you're not gonna get away from The woman thing, you know, and I just but I I don't want that to be the focal point personally for me. I understand why it is
00:19:02
Speaker
But, I mean, Vadim knows this. I've said it from the very beginning. It's like, I don't want that to be the only thing you remember from talking with us. It's about our awesome, we are four generations.
00:19:17
Speaker
We worked with our grandpa. He had an office and he would wander downstairs at 80 years old, 85, and how many people can say they worked with their dad and their grandpa in the same building and being able to have that wonderful experience just down the hall and being able to share all the new stuff and how excited grandpa would be when we started the land plan.
00:19:45
Speaker
I wish he would have been here when we started the Portland airport because I know he just would have been tickled pink and never mentioning once anything he did to keep this company alive. And dad would never talk about that either.
00:20:00
Speaker
I think that kind of goes into this modern age where with this mass timber movement and the forest fires and all these things, we're in a mode that wood is good. We've been in the shadows for so long and they're used to being secretive. They're used to being like, okay, well, I know that there's industry people that are proud of what we do and like what we do, but we don't need the world. The world doesn't.
00:20:29
Speaker
you know, and so when we got the Portland, Oregon airport job, I talked to the Port of Portland going, hey, this is your chance. This is your chance to make
00:20:44
Speaker
recovered wood from forest fires a positive. It's damage to make into beauty. This is using it to a beautiful purpose. And when I talked about it in 2021, they weren't receptive to it just because there's still that negative connotation. But you're seeing end of 23 and even 24, you're seeing more commercials for
00:21:08
Speaker
We need to manage our forests. Biden passing like the Forest Care Act or whatever it's called, you know. So there's more, hey, we need to manage. We need to manage when they've been neglecting the forests for so long. And that's why the forests are so bad. I always love talking about Warehauser and their property they have at Mount St. Helens that you can see their managed forests. It's a live study from, you know, 80, was it 87, 88, you know, prior to all of us by many, many years.
00:21:40
Speaker
Six months, maybe. Yes. I think it was a year. It's on the oldest, but yeah. So then that way it's showing not a modern, you know, this is how it's going to be when you manage your forest, but Warehouser did it 35 years ago. And that is a modern look at the state federal land on Mount St. Helens next to the Warehouser. Warehouser is flourishing. It's so healthy.
00:22:08
Speaker
And I love talking about that. I love their presentations on it. I want it available to everybody because it's in the past showing how good the forest industry has been. And we can now be out of the shadows because this mass timber movement of the public loving wood again.
00:22:29
Speaker
And this is our chance. We're internally modest, shadowy industry, right? Just like I was saying, but now, especially with trying to get the young people interested and social media and LinkedIn and everything, you need to show you're with it. That's the only way someone not knowing the industry at all is gonna go, wow, this looks kind of cool because you're showing, you have to actually let people in now.
00:22:58
Speaker
to show this wonderful world that we've always known about.
00:23:03
Speaker
that has always been there and we and we may change you know it's not it's not wood products degree you got to change it to recycling environmental or to make it sound renewable resources yeah whatever but but again it doesn't really matter if you're bringing more people into this industry especially really smart bright driven people that can see wow this you know this really is renewable like doing mill tours
00:23:30
Speaker
people with Joe, our general manager normally goes, okay, guys, how much percent of the log is used? You'll get 75%. You'll get 80%. He goes 100%. And usually about half the people go, wow, I had no idea. And so if we can do that on a bigger scale, that's what the Portland, the Port of Portland really
00:23:52
Speaker
has done a good job of showing that it's local and wood is good. And because it means something more coming from the port of Portland than it does me as the Bulldog Mills because it appears to be self-serving. Where Kelsey's story about the salesperson, it was not from our company. She was from another company who has no interest in working with us at this time.
00:24:17
Speaker
But, but it's not about just promoting ourselves. We need to promote the industry, like, for me getting promoted to lumber person of the year it was a fellow female person that I became, I have a relationship with.
00:24:34
Speaker
who was our customer. So I mean, because she she didn't qualify for the number of years because it was like a minimum and she was over it, you know, but I was really appreciative because she's an amazing person herself. I mean, there's so many amazing young driven people, but but we're all worried about
00:24:52
Speaker
We're all old enough now worrying about the next generation. How do we get these new people in? We always try keeping, how do you make lumber sexy? Well, it's not that hard. I mean, sawdust is just man glitter, right?
00:25:06
Speaker
Yeah. And like leading into what Casey was saying, so like that brought us into, I think like meeting Koval at the Koval time that we did was very fortuitous for us. We had the Portland airport, but we needed, so like, okay, we have to look more professional. And after, so we met at mass timber and our booth was sad. Like, like we thought we did a good job. Like I'm like, okay, this is like above and beyond. Like, cause again, that going to the
00:25:31
Speaker
to the lumber of that Nala. We did. We did. We had a huge TV. And, and it's just like, man, and then we could see the disappointment on some people's faces that were like, Oh, this company did the airport, like this cute little tiny, like unprofessional looking. I'm like, okay, we have to do something. And then, and also like, and also the other part that we ran up against that case I have also experienced is,
00:26:01
Speaker
We've been wanting to update our website for a long time. I headed a movement and did it a few years ago before Koval came on. I mean, it looked like a MySpace page before because they had different colored fonts and stuff. Yeah. But again, it was better than it was the previous because it was just like a one page like, hi, where's the belong mills? Come talk to us. Like that's all that was. So Casey and I have been pushing for years to try and update us.
00:26:28
Speaker
But when you have higher ups that don't see the value in it, because again, what does that bring to the bottom line? How can you measure that? So I think that's probably what Casey and I's long game success is probably going to be looking like because we, we modernized it enough that because our website was more up to date, we hired in one of our newest sales guys a few years ago because he's like, okay, they actually seem like they, they, they won't be too old fashioned because that's a worry.
Balancing Family and Business
00:26:57
Speaker
for a lot of young people entering the industry and wanting to work somewhere. So that's just something that I think Casey and I bring to the table is we are trying to keep modern. We are trying to keep us relevant. And that's why we had to fight pretty much tooth and nail to get the Sawmill logo updated for the first time in 80 years last year. And there were tears. I'm sure there were tears behind closed doors that Casey and I did this.
00:27:24
Speaker
But there's been a huge positive response from our employees. They're just like, man, it was time. And they're excited for the swag. They're excited to be a part of this legacy. It's become a legacy, because we're in our 80th year this year. 80 years is a long time. Are you nervous that you might screw it up?
00:27:41
Speaker
No pressure. No pressure. I say that all the time. Well, because studies show it's usually the third generation. So dad was supposed to screw it up. But now he just handed it off to us. So we're like, thanks, dad. No, you're in the clear. You're in the clear. No, no. It should be good. That just means it's more pressure. We're trying.
00:28:05
Speaker
You're like, not this one. Right. But it's something like, obviously, I mean, we talk about it with just each other, talk about with our dad, because obviously, so he was very open with us if we wanted to work here or not. Because if you work for a family business,
00:28:23
Speaker
It's, you have to love it. There is no ifs, ands, or buts about it. There will be times where you question, is it worth it? Because it's really hard to separate for me and my dad anyway.
00:28:38
Speaker
work and personal like we would have a meeting for like three hours and then I'd be like oh yeah mom said she wants this to grab you the grab at the store before I had you guys house for dinner like it'd be like oh shit forgot to bring up the personal thing but we're working on that it's
00:28:56
Speaker
That was never a problem for Kelsey. But it's because we love it. It's because we love talking about it. We have someone. And luckily, my husband loves hearing about it. When he went on a tour looking at all the big machinery, he was like, this is so crazy.
00:29:14
Speaker
cool and you got to know the guys through going all the company events and but it's it is a labor of love like it is if you don't have passion for it especially looking at the numbers are again you can't think about it that way
00:29:31
Speaker
What we've always seen with our grandpa and with our dad was, what's next? What's the next improvement we can make to the mill? And that's why our dad's always been really good at looking forward and making an educated decision and there's always risk involved. People don't
00:29:53
Speaker
People who have never owned their own business or haven't done anything like this don't realize, I mean, it's our money. It's our money and us putting faith, especially on a huge project where we've got to count on other people. That's our livelihood. We're not doing this for fun. It's not bad to say we're in the business to make money.
00:30:12
Speaker
I mean, unless we're working for the government who's going to supplement all this kind of stuff, then it's not a negative to say you're in it to make money.
Resilience and Success Stories
00:30:22
Speaker
Because how else are you going to keep everybody employed and can move forward if you don't make money?
00:30:28
Speaker
I mean, our dad went through a really, really rough time in 87 to 89. That's when the mill was like, are we ever going to start again? There was no logs left. And he took a huge risk. I mean, he bought some logs that hoping to get some recovery out of them and happened to start the mill up. They went from old growth to the
00:30:48
Speaker
second growth and they totally redid the mill to accommodate for that and end up working out but a lot of those mills they couldn't either start up again or when they did they still couldn't make ends meet and his saying was if you make a dime you can run forever and so he's been in those times and it's really really impactful to get our dad and our general manager to tell the story
00:31:15
Speaker
because they were both there in the trenches they were there in the super hard times when it's like we love what we do but if we can't make it work anyways yes you just brought up anyway talk to me about the portland airport and what that project entailed what that was like for folks that that don't know give me a 30 seconds synopsis
00:31:40
Speaker
You can just join us for our therapy sessions on Thursdays at four. I'm still recovering.
00:31:56
Speaker
There you go, only a 10 second review. No, it was, it was the most exhilarating, challenging, terrifying experience of my life, but out of it.
00:32:14
Speaker
I realized I have the best group of people to work with that I can trust within the company and how relationships were key in that. If it wasn't with our relationship with Swinerton Builders, which is now Timber Lab, and then their relationship with Hamid Skanska and then Port of Portland, without all of those relationships and their openness to communication and hearing ideas and
00:32:44
Speaker
us taking a risk and they took a risk on us because that's the only way it would have worked. And it ended up working. I can sleep at night now, but it's the biggest order our company has had either laminated or solids on ever. There's nothing that's even close to it. What was ordered?
00:33:11
Speaker
What? What was ordered? So they're so zip a laminators created 97%. So 220 80 foot long curves that went from 16 feet tall. So when it does the curve
00:33:30
Speaker
you know, zero up to 16 foot and then down to straight and 111 inches deep is the deepest one. And so we did all of those, we did the skylights and then for the sawmill, the six by eight, if you ever walk in the Portland airport, you go to a storefront or a restaurant, the six by eights you touch in this post, that's from Zippo. So all the way that's surrounding on top of you and then all that is all Zippo.
00:33:58
Speaker
And great, great moment of pride. We were able to take the laminators crew up, even at the staging side of the job. They're able to actually see one of the huge beams get crane into play. So big kudos to Swinerton for having the idea to have us come over because because they, you know, took eight of them part of their day and they got us lunch and they brought the bus down and back for us and
00:34:22
Speaker
I mean, it was incredible to have them be able to say I walked on the rooftop of the Portland Airport. I got to like walk the staging area. And then we had a group people come in October of 23 was actually all installed for the most part where it's going to be in place.
00:34:41
Speaker
and they're opening in May of this year so we're so excited and it is the lights are going to pop up because there's also lattice that crisscrosses above them to be a basket weave that's the that's the vision that they wanted but there'll be lights shooting down and up there's live olive trees that are going to be in the airport and they don't produce seeds because they're the males
00:35:04
Speaker
And so they're not going to have that mess of it. They thought of everything. I mean, it is going to be phenomenal. It's epic. No one's going to miss that carpet because the new floor is amazing. And I am so privileged to have been a part of it. And I'm glad if I didn't have the team in place, if I didn't have my operations manager, John, I would not have attempted this.
00:35:31
Speaker
without John, without the work of Clement and Jackie and Kiermann and everyone, it wouldn't have been possible. Casey, that's a huge deal. The fact that Zippo going from early days, the story that I know that we've heard before offline of the podcast, but maybe in another episode, we could go deeper and hear that story, but truly from it going
00:36:00
Speaker
you know, a company that was fledgling like you explained with your grandfather to your father to building it up and building the Zippo log mills, the sawmill itself, and then being able to start the facility that does the mass timber beams, the gluland, these amazing, giant, large format beams with these insane curves like you're explaining, and to be able to deliver that to the Portland Airport. I mean, that's just such a moment of pride for you and the whole team at Zippo.
00:36:28
Speaker
Definitely, but it really complements both companies because they're both custom. So even though we thought there'd be competition with the products, it really complements each other, different world, but all custom, high quality, that's
Business Operations and Evolution
00:36:44
Speaker
our goal, is any kind of structural, high visual you want, we want you to be one stop shop here.
00:36:51
Speaker
Can you paint quickly a picture of, we've talked about Zippo Zippo, but there's multiple businesses involved in what you do. Can you just give us the elevator pitch on what is Zippo or what are the pieces of Zippo?
00:37:06
Speaker
So the pieces of Zippo, we have a separate log yard that's on eight acres where we sort our logs as we get them for certain cuts of sizes of items. If you need a big timber, we have certain diameters and grades for those. Then it goes to the sawmill, which is on 11 acres.
00:37:26
Speaker
in Eugene. It's the only sawmill within the city limits of Eugene and that's where all the cutting happens. We can we can cut logs up to 60 inches in diameter on the butt end and we could cut to 52 feet long and then any wood that needs to be sorted by length or after planing we take them to our Goshen facility which
00:37:48
Speaker
We purchased in 2013 where we have a trace order that does about 75% of our shipping as well because we have a rail spur that goes out there. And then we have our kilns at our customs slash glulam department.
00:38:07
Speaker
and we're going to build kilns at our Goshen facility to then be able to take that out of the rotation. We have our own truck fleet that transfers lumber and logs all day long to get to all separate locations. If someone wants to start a GoFundMe to have us all have it in one place, I would really appreciate it. Just need, like, $100 million. Thanks. That's awesome. Well, I can't write you that check, so sorry. I guess I'd been like, you know, GoFundMe, you know, that way you can get started.
00:38:38
Speaker
But yeah, that's a custom, custom, custom. That's what we just want to do is just give you that, like our little tagline is, think it can't be done, ask us.
00:38:51
Speaker
Was that part of your grandfather's vision for the facility was going to move into the future with custom cutting? For him, it was open to that. When he got in the mill, they were doing a lot of export versus now, which is pretty much zero. We don't do any export anymore. It was mostly going to Italy and Japan, China. Italy was for the olive.
00:39:20
Speaker
all of orchards and so I think for him because it's grandpa he would make some smart ass little like if we just made a buck we'd do it you know so like uh we were we're building the mill at we were taking down the old mill and he's like i'm surprised they're still standing you know because they just threw like rocks in it to like get the get the stuff in it so no grandpa grandpa would have been like
00:39:46
Speaker
whatever we needed to do to make, you know, whatever people needed, he just would have been proud of dad and super proud of dad and what he had to deal with with the Spotted Owl and making, because they had just bought, my dad and his cousin just bought them out prior to the Spotted Owl really taking effect. So that was the, that was a good time.
00:40:11
Speaker
for them to do that, but yeah, so there's a lot of respect. I have so much respect for every SAML that has survived to this point. We are survivors, there's a reason we're here, and it's because of the people having the passion, desire, grit to do it, because anyone who's a mill now went through all this shit, and there's gonna be another time, which we're all thinking it's now at the economy,
00:40:37
Speaker
So that's when we turn to the guys that have the experience of the downtimes. We've had really good times since like 2012. There's been little dips here and there, but ever since I've been officially on the payroll in the industry, I have not really seen a bad time. So this is where we really got to listen to our old guys now and have the grit to push through.
00:40:59
Speaker
Kelsey and I didn't have women to have be our role models, right? We had our dad who went, do you guys want to try and we're like, sure. And then we had grandpa who was like, this is cool that you're here, you know, so we had men raise us to that gave us the opportunity to rise. So
00:41:19
Speaker
It's so hard for me because I didn't have that woman that was like, ooh, she blazed the trail for me. What an inspiration. But I know, I know that happens for a lot of people. I understand that. But for me, it's hard because I didn't have that.
Empowering Women in Timber
00:41:33
Speaker
And yet it's because it's because of my dad being open, because of us proving ourselves that we got to where we are. Just like any other child or person I would hope that goes
00:41:46
Speaker
into a job because my dad would have been brutally honest if Kelsey and I like really hey you really shouldn't be here. Well perhaps that means that you're doing that for some other little girl somewhere out there. I just keep doing doing me and I hope everyone else does too and just focus on you know doing your job and focusing on that and not not going for the
00:42:13
Speaker
don't go for the punch card of thinking, hey, I should hire this person over this one because of how they look, because then we're going backwards. Absolutely. Casey and Kelsey, you both were a huge example in what's possible, and it's exciting, and thanks for the conversation. Thanks for sharing unique stories, how you've grown up and challenges, the things that you've learned over your career. I think there's an opportunity for
00:42:39
Speaker
part two to this conversation because there's a lot more to unpack in terms of what's possible and where you're going in the future. But I just want to say thank you so much for the opportunity to have this conversation, to be able to understand you better, to share with our audience about the things you are working on daily that then build up the bigger
00:43:01
Speaker
What people see from the outside is the Zippo family and it's really been great to work with you, collaborate with you and see you being able to be real with us and with our audience here on the podcast. Thank you so much. And thank you both for reaching out and having us on. Absolutely. We're going to actually have Jake work on that. Ooh, fun.
00:43:30
Speaker
I hope you enjoy this recording, Jake. Just a few minutes of me waiting around. Unless you guys can all see me, that'd be funny. So Jake's going to have to just slice that whole off. But still, the question's valid. So give it to me, girl.
00:43:49
Speaker
So, go ahead Kelsey. Can I talk for like a minute? Only one. So, okay. Start your timer. I guess I want to add on to the other question real quick. So, like. I want to make a side note that Jake is not relevant to the podcast. Jake, Jake's got so much slicing he's got to do. He didn't want to wake up. Don't put that in. Don't put that in. He didn't want to wake up. Not the compliment.
00:44:19
Speaker
No, Fleeper out, guys. Fleeper out. Just the whole thing. Yeah. Well, I think that brings up an interesting point. Ooh, good job, button boy. You can stay. And now, the grand opening. Ooh. All right. This is a Woodworld podcast. So before we really hit this thing off,