Risk & Business Magazine F.A. Peabody Insurance Spring 2017 | Page 25

BY: SCOTT AUSTIN, CIC,
F. A. PEABODY INSURANCE
Rebecca Lowell
R. E. Lowell Lumber: Insights
Where Hard Work Is The Family Tradition
I
n the 1950s and into the 60s, Ralph
Lowell worked as a jack-of-all-trades
while living in Buckfield, Maine, with
his wife and eight children. He often
labored in the woods and had an
old sawmill that he used for small sawing
jobs in the evenings and weekends. As the
years passed, he continued to pick up more
sawing jobs until running a mill became
his sole source of income. The family
would pitch in to help with the mill work
and whatever other tasks were required.
Ralph’s eldest son, Elwood, would haul a
truckload of wood in the morning prior to
attending high school. Mrs. Lowell would
take payments at the house, which then
adjoined the mill yard, and her daughter
Rebecca would handle the paperwork. As
the business grew, more family members
joined the enterprise.
The Lowells’ growing lumber company
continued to look for affordable
opportunities to expand. In the early
1970s, they purchased a used planer from a
business that had recently closed its doors,
and in 1978, the old sawmill was replaced
with a more efficient system. Rebecca set
up a small camper in the mill yard in the
mid-1980s to serve as the first official office
of the lumber company. Her sister, Edith,
returned to the family business, becoming
a licensed log scaler and working in the
planing mill. As the business continued to
thrive, the Lowells’ saw a local need and
decided to open a retail hardware store
close to the mill yard. Also around that
same time, Lowell Lumber expanded into
wholesaling pine.
Today, the family members make decisions
as a group and continue to look for
affordable opportunities to grow. In 2014,
R. E. Lowell Lumber purchased a former
log home operation in Turner, Maine. This
provided a high visibility location for a
second retail operation. Also, the Turner
mill housed the same type of planer as the
Buckfield mill, allowing Lowell Lumber
to divide its planing jobs between the two
mills — Turner is used for the smaller
custom jobs while Buckfield handles
standard-sized jobs. The Lowells’ now have
a secondary business as well — milling log
homes.
One key to the success of R. E. Lowell
Lumber has been its continuing strategy
to walk the fine line between productivity
and affordability. Realizing the excessive
costs of purchasing new state-of-the-
art equipment, Lowell searches for
opportunities to purchase more affordable,
slightly used equipment that still permits
high productivity. This allows for lower
overhead, quality products, and competitive
pricing.
The sawmill operation remains at the heart
of R. E. Lowell Lumber and is now run by
Elwood’s son, Tom. The mill is still able to
purchase quality high-grade pine logs for
milling due to long-term relationships with
many suppliers. The sawmill operates at
full capacity, cutting four million board feet
of pine annually. The double-edged band
saw used for the past 20 years is half the
width of a circular saw. This quarter-inch
reduction in the saw blade width results in
an additional 350,000 board feet of lumber
annually. It’s the difference of being in or
out of business.
In an economic environment that has
resulted in several sawmill closings of
late, R. E. Lowell Lumber has survived
through hard work, good decisions, and a
commitment to quality and productivity.
Family members multi-task, covering for
one another as needed in various positions.
Strict lumber grading standards are
preserved, resulting in demand for 100
percent of Lowell’s wholesale products
with buyers from as far away as Tennessee
and Indiana. The greatest danger to any
business is standing still, and if history
is any guide, that’s not in R. E. Lowell
Lumber’s plans. +
Edith & Tom Lowell
Scott Austin is an agent specializing in
forestry and commercial insurance. Scott is
a Certified Insurance Counselor.
25