Youthful CEO builds
multi-million firm By JAMES RONALD SKAINS During the 1990's, when you heard about a 22-year-old entrepreneur starting a business that grossed $3.5 million in its first year operations, you were 99% of the time talking about a Silicon Valley Hi-tech computer technology-based business. But David Hogan, now 29 years old and in his seventh year as a CEO, has always produced and sold "pretty things" that you can actually see and touch, such as hardwood mouldings and cabinet materials found in fine homes and office buildings all over the country. Some of Hogan's most loyal customers are in the Beverly Hills area of California. In the year 2000, David Hogan and his Ruston, Louisiana based hardwood and moulding business, topped $54 million in sales of value added products based on hardwood lumber. "Our goal is to continue to grow each year as we have in the past seven years," David Hogan told the Piney Woods Journal. "We opened our Ft.Worth/Dallas metro distribution center in 2000 and it did much better than we anticipated. This year we will be opening an outlet in Birmingham." "When we opened our Fort Worth/Dallas distribution yard, there were 20 major competitors in the Fort Worth Dallas market," Hogan pointed out. "But with the quality of our products and service we found that Hogan Hardwoods could compete on a national level." At his home base in Ruston, in addition to the corporate offices, Hogan Hardwoods has a huge warehouse and a moulding plant. In nearby Simsboro, Hogan has its dry kiln operations. Also, in New Orleans, Hogan has a warehouse facility for its imported woods such as mahogany and Spanish cedar which primarily comes from Peru and Brazil. Distribution centers for Hogan Hardwoods and Mouldings also include facilities in Lafayette and Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Little Rock, Arkansas as well as a distribution center in Santa Rosa, Florida near Destin. "All this has been made possible because we have been able to bring together an outstanding team of people," Hogan pointed out. "We started out with 10 people and two trucks and now have about 160 people and 35 trucks "We were very fortunate to have Arvin Moeller come aboard during our second year of operation," Hogan noted. "Arvin is one of the top experts in all phases of the hardwood and moulding industry with over 30 years of experience." "Arvin trained all of us on the hardwoods and architectural grade mouldings," Hogan explained - the CEO who never found time to complete his college degree before starting his own business "In fact, Arvin wrote our training manuals and product catalogs." Arvin Moeller's product catalog and Product Review newsletters are lively reading. Under a subtitle called "Wood Trivia Questions," two of the questions and answers are quite interesting: 1. What state has the largest number of different kinds of trees? 2. What is said to be the largest hardwood tree in the world? The answer to the first question is Florida which has 314 different species of native and naturalized trees including Genuine Mahogany. Texas, Georgia, and California follow in that order. The answer to the second question about the largest hardwood trees in the world is the mountain ash from Tasmania, some of which are in excess of 325 feet - which is 25 feet longer than a football field. Paul Hogan, David's father, is Senior Vice President of Hogan Hardwoods. "Dad takes care of a lot of the collections. He gets to travel around a lot," Hogan pointed out. "At one time my Dad was building about 70 houses a year in North Louisiana. He was also into real estate development so we all kinda grew up in a business atmosphere." "My Mom had her own business and my brother owns the Do-It-Center building material store here in Ruston on the Farmerville highway," Hogan noted. "My sister, Ginger, and her husband have an irrigation business so the whole family is business oriented. My wife Tiffany is involved with Hogan Hardwoods and at the moment is in our Santa Rosa, Florida store near Destin." Tiffany and David have one son, six year old Frasier, which was Tiffany's maiden name. "Frasier is just now getting to the age where I can carry him deer hunting," Hogan said, adding "Hunting and fishing is my really my game." Hogan Hardwoods and Mouldings is an active supporter of wildlife and outdoor recreation in Louisiana. They have a 1300-acre hunting and fishing club located on the banks of scenic Black Lake in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana which caters to Hogan employees and customers. During the 1999/2000 hunting season there were two 10-point bucks taken on the Hogan Hunting Club property, one of which was by Wesley Ragland of Ragland's Cabinets in Stephenville, Texas. Ragland's deer scored 142 Boone and Crockett points. "We have over 7,000 architects, cabinet makers, furniture makers and millworks business on our active mailing list," Hogan said in detailing some of the company's marketing strategy. "We have about 20 sales people who work in teams. One is outside sales and one is inside sales, so a Hogan customer has two people looking out for their orders." Two of Hogan's monthly marketing flyers tout their January specials of Ash, Basswood, Red Oak, and Sassafras. One Hogan flyer notes: "Twice-A-Week Deliveries in the Tuscaloosa and Birmingham area on Hogan Hardwoods and Mouldings. Curtain side Trailers-Clint Durrett (Outside sales) and Rocky Kingrea(inside sales)." Another Hogan Flyer notes: "Twice a week deliveries in the Lake Charles and Beaumont area and three times a week in the Lufkin/Nacogdoches area on Hogan Hardwoods and Moulding's Curtain side Trailers-Cullen Clark(outside sales) and Chip Robinson (inside sales)." "That is part of our distribution plan," Hogan explained. "We try to build up sales and enough regular customers in an area to justify opening a distribution yard. By the time we open a distribution yard in an area we have a solid customer base." "This is how we entered the huge Dallas/Fort Worth market," Hogan pointed out. "Just as we were opening the distribution yard, Kenny Pence, who has been in the hardwood business since 1978 working with several of the industry legends, came aboard as our General Manager. A lot of the success of that distribution center is due to Kenny and the outstanding staff that he has put together." "Our sales product mix is about 50% hardwood lumber, 20% hardwood plywood, 15% hardwood moulding, and the balance in our full line of cabinet accessories and tools for millwork shops." "Our moulding plant here in Ruston offers a complete line of custom moulding options," Hogan stated. "We have over 2,500 moulding knives in stock and are constantly making new knives for custom orders. We can match and duplicate old line mouldings found in New Orleans as well as mouldings used in Beverly Hills." Hogan Hardwoods and Mouldings operates a state-of-the art moulding facility. New equipment includes 4 moulders, 2 stom profile knife grinders, straight-line rip saws, gang-rip saws, spiral carbide cutter-head planers and an automatic shrink-wrap machine. All Hogan custom moulding orders are delivered shrink-wrapped. The latest addition to the Hogan Moulding plant is a new Weinig Hydomat 23C six-head moulder. The Weinig 23C is considered to be the finest moulder in the world featuring six knives per head and an automatic infeed and outfeed system. The mew moulder is also equipped with an automatic jointing system that joints the knives in the heads while the machine is manufacturing mouldings. The system is capable of running 90,000 lineal feet of moulding in one day. Back in 1995, Hogan Hardwoods was the first hardwood lumber supplier in the four state area to qualify for the grading certification program of the National Hardwood Lumber Association. Hogan is also a member of the National AWI (Architectural Woodworking Institute). Hogan markets both custom and premium grades of material according to AWI standards. Hogan also sells all their hardwood lumber on a "net tally" scale which means that the board feet of lumber is calculated after the wood has been kiln dried which reduces the board footage. "One of our big sellers right now is sinker cypress," Hogan told the Journal. "Its a hot item all over the country. Sinker cypress comes from cypress logs that have been buried for years in the soft muddy bottoms of rivers, lakes, swamps, and bayous." "We have a guy down in Appalachicola, Florida who supplies us with sinker cypress logs," Hogan added. "The lumber from sinker cypress is reddish-brown in color and resembles teak and is refereed to as `Dead Head Cypress." The first printed instructions for lumber grading in America were published in 1884 by the Yellow Pine Association for grading and classification of yellow pine lumber. In 1886, the first hardwood lumber grading rules were published by the New York Lumber Auction Company. In 1898, a group of hardwood lumber manufacturers and wholesales met in Chicago to draw up a single set of standardized rules for the grading of hardwood lumber. Also, at this Chicago meeting, the National Hardwood Lumber Association was formed. "We are definitely looking forward to the future of our company," David Hogan emphasized. "We are a privately held company and intend to remain that way. Our next benchmark for Hogan Hardwoods is to reach the $100 million mark in sales." Other members of the upper-management team of Hogan Hardwoods are Clay Hipp who as a Vice-President is in charge of the Ruston/Simsboro operations. Hipp, at 29 is one of the original seven members of Hogan Hardwood team. Hipp and David Hogan worked together previously at MDL Laminate wood products company. Ward York, also 29 is one of the newer members of the Hogan management team as Vice-President of Distribution. Although York grew up Fort Smith, Arkansas, he has ties to the Piney Woods being of relative of Tramel Almond of Almond Brothers Lumber company in Coushatta. Glen Mitchell is Vice-President of Finance and Accounting. A CPA, Mitchell was an outside auditor for Hogan before moving into the corporate offices as part of the management team. It's interesting to think that a hardwood tree in the Piney Woods could easily become a piece of fine moulding in a house in Beverly Hills, Dallas/Fort Worth, New Orleans or places in between if the lumber from the tree makes its way to the Hogan operation in Ruston. |