Piedmont Truss and Lumber seeks to fill manufacturing void

The closure of two regional lumber companies in the recession provided an opportunity for Piedmont Truss and Lumber Inc. of Fernley to move its operations to the Reno-Sparks area.

In November BMC West, a lumber and truss manufacturer, closed its Minden facility and later shuttered its Sparks facility in January. That left a large hole in the Reno-Sparks market, says Piedmont Truss and Lumber President Dennis Bostwick, so in January the company moved into the space formerly occupied by High Sierra Lumber at 8355 Double R Blvd.

Piedmont purchased the inventory and assets of High Sierra Lumber, as well as truss manufacturing equipment, and seeks to gain traction in the lumber and manufactured components market despite the severe downturn in residential and commercial building.

The key to success, Bostwick says, is keeping overhead as low as possible until home building rebounds. Piedmont Truss and Lumber employs 13 office and yard workers most of whom came to Piedmont when BMC West left the market.

Piedmont, which incorporated in Nevada and no longer is affiliated with its former parent company, also is in good position to weather the recession because it carries no debt.

"We felt that if we could combine lumber with trusses and be a full-service company to the people that are building, and keep our overhead very low and just wait it out, that we would be here when it turned around," Bostwick says. "So far that is starting to come to fruition. We are starting to get enough business."

Bostwick moved to Fernley from Healdsburg, Calif., in 2005 when Piedmont expanded to northern Nevada with a sales and engineering office. Bostwick has spent four decades in the lumber industry, including 20 years with Piedmont Lumber and Millworks. But last year that company closed its northern Nevada office, as well as a large truss manufacturing facility in Tracy, and Bostwick struck out on his own with truss equipment purchased from the defunct Tracy plant.

Competitors include Reno Truss Inc. in Sparks and Burton Components in Fernley, who serve the northern Nevada market for manufactured building components. Piedmont's business through the first two quarters was expectedly slow, but it has begun to pick up over the past few weeks with the onset of summer, Bostwick says.

"We had developed a fairly nice clientele from being in Fernley, and we just added to that when took over High Sierra," he says.

But the company's success ultimately depends on a rebound in the construction industry.

"We anticipate 2009 being slow," Bostwick says. "We expect the winter to be slow and to start seeing more of a pickup in the spring of 2010. If 2010 ends up being bad the entire year, then it depends on how bad it is. That might get a little tough."

Piedmont Truss and Lumber purchases much of its inventory from local companies, using Capital Plywood for plywood panels and S&S Construction Supplies in Reno for hardware. The company delivers trusses and lumber to a market that extends from Truckee and the Tahoe Basin, to Susanville, Calif., as well as Winnemucca, Elko and Ely.

"The challenge is to try and keep enough sales coming in even though we have a very slim overhead to meet the overhead," Bostwick says. "We are here to work with contractors and developers in all of northern Nevada to try and get through this and help them as much as we can by working together as a team. That is going to be the ticket."