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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: Timber Industries is woman-owned business, as certified the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. Why did you decide that certification was a priority, and was it difficult to achieve?

ANNETTE WALTER: It is an extremely important path to take. It’s also a very challenging path to take, and I think that’s why a lot of companies have often shied away with the process of becoming minority-owned, or woman-owned business, to go through that actual certification process. It’s tough. There is a lot of paperwork. You need to be extremely organized. You need to really have your ducks in a row. You need to be aware of really having everything organized.

I think that these agencies have been burned by a lot of companies who want to get the certification for the wrong reasons, so they put the companies that want to go through the certifications for the right reasons through a grueling process, because they have seen every story probably out there that makes them have these strict, strict guidelines in place, and rightfully so. In the wood, packaging, crating, and lumber industry, you don’t see a lot of minority businesses going through that, because there’s not a lot of them, but at the same time they haven’t really wanted to go through that process, because it is a long road.

Q. What does this certification mean to you, and do you believe it’s important for other kinds of businesses to pursue?

A. With the acquisition of Timber Industries, one of our main focuses was obtaining the woman-owned designation. We started the process in September of 2013, and we were certified in January of 2014. It was a paramount move for us, simply because in our industry, there aren’t a lot of minority businesses and woman-owned businesses, and that was important to the Fortune 500 companies.

We sell to a lot of the Fortune 500 companies—mainly, a lot of the food and beverage companies, as well as the plastic and packaging companies, and a lot of the pharmaceutical companies. It is an important thing to them. They need to be able to check off that box. It’s part of their spend, and it’s important not only that you are certified, but that you’re a strong partner.

You really have to show up. I travel across the country going to numerous events for the Women's Business Enterprise National Council, for the Women's Presidents Organization, and then on the local level for the Baltimore City certification and the Maryland Certification—WSB, we have as well. When you have the certifications you have to invest the time and the money to make sure that you are gaining as much out of it as you can, but also giving back as much as you can to that, because, we want these organizations to be an important part of how we do business across the United States moving forward. And if we do not have qualified strong companies that really are serious about doing business, about working hard, about being tenacious and moving forward and earning this business that these Fortune 500 companies are designating a huge spend to, then they’ll get rid of them—they won’t do it anymore.

Do I recommend women business owners to get the certification? It depends their product or service. It also depends on their total picture, how they bought the company—if they used their own funds to buy the company—if they’re writing the checks, if they’re in charge of everything. How involved are they? Who’s on their team? Every single question about your company and your personal financials is examined to get these certifications. It is a very rigorous and rewarding experience to go through, but if you don’t necessarily have the right product mix, or service, or perhaps those types of companies have already saturated the minority-owned space, then it may not be worth the time and resources, especially if you have a smaller budget as far as monies and time.

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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