Wood Products, NEC

The industry covers a plethora of wood products not categorized under other classifications, such as ship masts, dowels, rowboat oars, clipboards, rattan seat covers, shoe trees, tool handles, toothpicks, washboards, paint stirring sticks, and wooden ladders. Although the breadth of this industry is enormous, some categories account for a significant portion of overall sales. For example, wooden picture and mirror frames are by far the largest category.

Individuals, the largest consumers of miscellaneous wooden goods, account for the largest percentage of industry sales. Office building owners and managers are the second largest sector. Other major consumers of industry output include furniture manufacturers, makers of glass products, and paperboard mills.

This industry is intangible and unstructured compared to most other industrial categories. The industry experienced wide swings in revenues during the 1980s, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. At that time 3,400 firms reported total sales of $3.4 billion. In 1992 the census reported only 2,644 firms with $3.7 billion in total shipments of miscellaneous wooden items. By 1997 the number of firms had dropped to roughly 2,300, with shipment values totaling approximately $3.7 billion. The value of shipments increased to $4.3 billion in 2000, before dropping to $3.9 billion in 2001. By 2005, sales had improved to nearly $5.7 billion, and that figure increased again in 2007 to $6.0 billion.

Long-term growth in industry sales and profits is dependent on individual product segments. Overall employment was expected to decline significantly into the 2000s. Most occupations were anticipated to experience a 5 to 20 percent workforce reduction as companies sought to automate and increase productivity. In contrast, sales and marketing professionals were expected to see positions in this industry grow by nearly 20 percent.

Although many different companies operated within this category, the Longaberger Co. of Newark, Ohio, was the number-one maker of handmade baskets in the United States in the late 2000s. Longaberger sold some 10 million baskets annually through more than 450,000 independent sales associates. The firm posted sales of $911 million in the mid-2000s, of which baskets accounted for about half. Pier 1 Imports Inc. of Fort Worth, Texas, also sold miscellaneous wicker and wood products and had sales of $1.3 billion in 2009.

Some of the U.S. firms that were significant in the wooden picture and mirror frame sector included Albecca Co. (Norcross, Georgia); Michael Stores Inc. (Irving, Texas); Pinnacle Frames and Accents Inc. (Austin, Texas); Uniek Inc. (Waunakee, Wisconsin); and Burnes Home Accents LLC (Round Rock, Texas).

In 2007 the U.S. Census Bureau reported 1,964 establishments in this industry with an estimated 36,674 employees, 76 percent of whom were production workers. Significant occupations in this industry included assemblers and fabricators, machine operators, sawyers, blue-collar work supervisors, and truck drivers.

According to a 2009 report by Supplier Relations U.S., sales in the miscellaneous wood products industry reached $6.3 billion in 2008. Value of imports from 126 countries was estimated at $2.2 billion. U.S. exports increased 11 percent annually between 2005 and 2008, reaching $450 million in 2008. Domestic demand for miscellaneous wood products that year was $8.0 billion. However, the economic slowdown of the late 2000s negatively affected consumer spending and personal consumption and slowed any significant growth in the industry.