Now in its 75th year, Wilson Lumber has built its foundation on the idea of doing the right thing for its people and its customers, creating a culture of longtime employees and business relationships. Remaining family-owned and operated has been a priority for the Wilsons. CEO Robb Wilson and his cousin Mark Wilson are third generation owners, and Robb’s son Haden, a fourth generation Wilson, recently came on board in the company’s purchasing department.
“We are a family-owned business. But the obligation of the family that owns the business is to make everyone feel like family,” Robb Wilson said about the importance of family owner/operators.
Founded in 1949 in Huntsville by Robb’s grandfather, Clyde Wilson, the company started out as a back-up plan to farming. After a swarm of boll weevils attacked his crops, Clyde began working with his brother-in-law to cut down trees and sell the lumber. From there, the operation grew to a store that sold other building materials and over the years evolved to the retail location the community knows today.
Wilson said the company owes much of its growth over the years to holding strong to
its mission statement—“to build a successful company that upholds Christlike principles and inspires people to grow”—and core values of accountability and treating people well.
“It’s in our mission statement. Part of it says, ‘inspiring people to grow,’” Wilson said. “And one of our core values is challenging yourself to grow. So, we definitely believe within our leadership team, senior management, and middle management that our responsibility is to grow and develop our team and our customers. We want to inspire them to be the best in any way we can.”
Navigating growth
Over time the company has grown to add two truss manufacturing plants and two millwork plants, Wilson said, which gives it the capability to build and brand some of its own products in-house, including Generations, Wilson’s own line of vinyl windows.
Although some of the plants have been around for several years, Wilson said that piece of the business proved invaluable during the Covid-19 pandemic, when many builders and customers experienced long lead times and other supply chain issues.
“Manufacturing plays such a huge role in making sure that we control our own destiny,” Wilson said. “We really have come to realize that [it] is a strong suit for us, and so that’s why we have the two truss manufacturing plants, the millwork manufacturing plants, and our retail location.”
Today, Wilson said the majority of the company’s customers are home builders working to keep up with Huntsville’s growing population. The metro area has nearly quadrupled during Wilson Lumber’s history, growing to over half a million people in recent years.
In 2010, the company expanded into the multifamily market, which now accounts for roughly 40% of its business across 13 states, according to President Josh Hendrickson. The other 60% comes from single-family homes primarily in North Alabama and Southern Tennessee.
The company itself has also seen personnel growth, reaching more than 360 employees as of 2024. Hendrickson said that as the company has grown larger, communication and teamwork have become even more important.
“The proactive communication piece of what we do is really important, whether the news is good or bad,” he said. “We’re going to make sure that we go out of our way to tell them as soon as possible so they can make an informed decision. That’s not just to our customers, that’s internal to all our employees—we must do that to be successful.”
Our company’s growth plan will always prioritize our mission, values and culture,” Wilson said. “The reason we want to grow is not just for growth’s sake, and definitely not for profit’s sake,” he said. “We believe we have a very healthy culture and an inspiring mission. Our goal is to inspire growth in our employees, customers, suppliers, community, and anyone else we come in contact with.”
People matter
Wilson and Hendrickson said the biggest asset for the company is its people, several of which have been with Wilson Lumber for decades. To that end, Hendrickson said the company prioritizes the well-being of its employees through its leadership development program, Wilson Lumber Grows, helping them build careers within Wilson Lumber.
“I personally believe that customers genuinely want to do business with people that they like, but more so with people that have the same mission,” Hendrickson said. “So we’re going to keep doing our thing. We’re going to keep going down that path, we’re going to focus on our employees—because they are most important. Then, we’re going to give back to the community and work really hard to be the best at what we do, which is taking care of our customers.”
With many LBM dealers in the U.S. experiencing recruiting and retention issues, Hendrickson said an important aspect of hiring is following up with new hires.
“Everybody talks about their culture, and I’ve been fortunate to visit companies that are really intentional about their culture; and you can see it, you can feel it,” Hendrickson said. “I believe that our employees feel that intentionality when they start working here. I ask new employees, ‘are we the company that we promised you?’ Because during the interview process, we describe our culture and core values. You can talk about them; but, we want to know that we are doing what we said we were going to do.”
Wilson said the company has also developed a culture of giving back, starting from within the company and expanding to the community and beyond.
The company established a benevolence fund to help support employees who may be experiencing hardships, and locally, Wilson Lumber works with several nonprofit organizations as part of its Wilson Lumber Cares initiative. Some recent community partners include the Downtown Rescue Mission, Romans 8:28, and Next Step Farms, which provides day programs and continuing education opportunities for adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities.
Additionally, the company also partnered with Awakening Hope to adopt a village in El Potrerillo, Guatemala and help supply clean water, food, clothing, education and more. Company employees routinely visit the village to help with construction projects and medical clinics. To date, Wilson Lumber has sponsored nearly 40 students.
Wilson said the employee, local, and global approaches to giving back have become one of the core parts of the business. He said the most important part of his job as CEO is to model those values for employees and the next generations to come.
“When an employee can go into any division of the business and see that we truly live those core values, then you can put a mission statement in front of them—then you start to get buy-in. They want to be a part of something larger than themselves if it’s a worthy mission,” Wilson said.
Get to know Wilson lumber
Founded: 1949
Ownership: Family
Locations: 1 retail, 2 truss plants and 2 millwork plants
Employees: 365
ERP Software: Epicor BisTrack
Business breakdown: 60% single family construction 40% multifamily construction
