Actions such as this reinforce the company’s position in the community, and the industry. As a third-generation owner, Scerri took the company over from her father in 2010 and has worked vigorously to uphold its reputation. On top of the many changes put into place over the past few years, Scerri unveiled a new vision for the company called “Building a Golden State of Mind.”
The vision is divided into two themes that encompass what the company is and where it wants to go. Scerri explains that “Grow Golden” is about growth and meeting the needs of the customer, including being a business that is innovative, adaptive and maintains a strong relationship with customers; “Stay Golden” is implemented as a reminder to all employees that the company values its employees and their work environment—and finds vital importance in listening, sharing and upholding the family culture.
“I believe if these themes live within our culture and everyone contributes to them, we will be stronger and we can all benefit from our success,” Scerri says.
A Different Approach
Yet, Scerri clarifies that although she took the reins as CEO of Golden State Lumber four years ago, she occasionally seeks mentorship from her father, and works with family members on a day-today basis. With a clear focus on expanding the business, Golden State Lumber is also working towards increasing employee benefits as well.
Last year the company offered a profit sharing plan at the end of the year— dividing a percentage of the profit earned within the year among the employees.
In conjunction, Golden State Lumber also covers 96% of employees’ medical expenses and matches 25% on 401k investments.
Scerri adds, “One of the reasons why people stay with us is because, due to our success, we’re able to offer a lot of benefits to our employees; we really take pride in that.”
Although the company has encountered difficulties within the last few years regarding hiring the right people, the bigger challenge can be competition.
“There is always the challenge of margin pressure from our competitors and how we want to handle that as a company,” Scerri says. “We have to keep our customers competitive, and we only want to take work that makes sense for us and our customers.”
Full Steam Ahead
One of the ways Golden State Lumber plans on staying ahead of the curve is the planned opening of a new location in Concord, Calif. “Our goal is to open another lumberyard in 2015,” Scerri says.
