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One of the only 100% woman-owned suppliers of lumber materials for diverse industries in the US

Annette Walter is the owner and CEO of Timber Industries, a national materials supplier headquartered in Towson, Maryland. Since 1977, Timber Industries has supported the supply chain and logistics needs of major manufacturers in industries such as consumer goods, food service, packaging, plastics, chemicals, metalworking, and automotive. Under Annette’s strategic direction, the company aims to provide a new standard of customer experience with a focus on emerging technology and sustainable practices.

EDWIN WARFIELD: What kinds of products does the company sell?

ANNETTE WALTER: With the product line, there are a number of things that you can do that are wood-related. Our core product is custom pallets and custom crating. We sell to a lot of the Fortune 500 companies with our minority business designation. That is on the national scale—that’s the Women's Business Enterprise National Council. We sell custom pallets, custom crating, any size lumber demands that they have. We do crane mats for the large oil and refinery industries, and mill work, custom carpentry, and really anything that’s wood-related we can do. We’ve dabbled in the custom pallet furniture segment. We have a couple of food companies in California that have asked us to do custom pallet display bars and pallet bars for them for their conventions, so that they don’t have to have their typical display that you would have at a convention—they want to kind of have that that modern, on-trend look that really fits the look of their product and where they are.

Q. What’s your status in the local market?

A. With the local market, we have our MDOT certification, our Maryland certification, and we also have our Baltimore City certification. Our local market, we aren’t doing as many pallet and crating sales as we are on the national scale, but we do a lot of the lumber sales here, and a lot of the crane mats just do the construction and the demand with the uniqueness of the product here. There’s a lot more construction here versus the manufacturing that we’re doing on a larger national scale.

Q. Are you open to engaging in future mergers and acquisitions?

A. There’s a lot of room for acquisitions and mergers in a family generational industry. We’re seeing a lot of shifts in the businesses that are in our mix, that are basically shifting from generation to generation and oftentimes, as many of you out there know what family businesses are and the reality of them, the next generation may not want them or may not want to be involved on as much of a large-scale as the original owner. We have been talking to multiple companies about different mergers and acquisitions out there. I think it’s a fabulous strategy for growth. It’s a strategy that we implemented in my past company and it’s favorable. Along with the organic growth with increasing sales, which we are doing a fabulous job of, mergers and acquisitions has to be applied.

Q. Where do you see the company in five years?

A. It’s crazy to think that 2013 was a short time ago, but here we are really approaching year four. I’d like to see our team breaking through that $50 million mark. I believe we’re on track to do that this this year. I have a huge challenge to my team to go past the $10 million mark, and we have a lot of great strategies out there that we’re implementing currently and year-to-date, we’re on track to really hit that.

Q. Did you face any challenges getting into the lumber industry?

A. First of all, I can’t speak highly enough about the industry that we have entered into. We are members of the National Wood Pallet & Container Association, and this is a mix of outstanding people. All of the members and the staff there are phenomenal. They have been amazingly welcoming to me and to the acquisition of Timber Industries. A lot of them were dear friends with the former owner, and knew the history of the company, so they’ve been really an integral part of supporting our growth, and while they’re friendly competition, I think that if you approach competition with the sense of collaboration, and not as a threat, you really make more friends in that space and you can learn some of the best things from the people in that space.

Q. As one of the only women who owns a company in this industry, how would you describe your leadership approach?

A. I took a different approach. I didn’t really take the approach of “I am woman, hear me roar! Here I am in a man's world,” because I think that we’re all smart people, and we’re all business people, and these people can learn from me as much as I can learn from them. They’ve been phenomenally welcoming, and I think there’s been a lot of great partnerships, as well as some potential in the future to really do some powerful things in this business.

Connect with Annette on LinkedIn

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Edwin Warfield, CEO of citybizlist, conducts the CEO Interviews.

If you're interested in reaching CEOs, please contact edwin.warfield@citybuzz.co

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