Business Spotlight: New Horizons Hardwoods Inc.

After 24 years in the commercial banking and finance industry, Laura Beaver was ready for a life change.

She began her new journey in 2007 by opening New Horizons Hardwoods Inc., an importer of hardwoods from Ecuador.

"With a last name like Beaver, I just had to be in the wood business!" she jokes.

"Our mission is not to get as much wood as we can, but to help the country of Ecuador to manage their forests."

Unlike countries such as Brazil and Peru, where clear-cutting has destroyed valuable rain forests, the people of Ecuador realized that their future and economic health relies on promoting ecotourism, she said. To do that, it is imperative for the country to protect its natural forests.

Entering Ecuador

Beaver began New Horizons with the help of Jim Gordon, vice president of operations, who lived in South America for 15 years developing the commercial fishing and seafood processing industries. During his time there, he also helped provide funding to build schools and clinics, hired school teachers and saw that many Ecuadorians were cutting down forests for farming as a means to support their families.

The climate in Ecuador promotes fast tree growth. The country, which is about the size of Colorado, gets an average of 12 hours of sun 365 days a year and 26.3 cubic meters of rain annually, Gordon says. There are 5,000 species of trees in Ecuador, compared to 160 species in the United States.

Seeing great potential, Gordon and Beaver went to the Ecuadorian government to purchase a concession that allows them to harvest trees in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The Ecuadorians own the land and supply the manpower, while New Horizons pays for the opportunity to harvest as well as the equipment and the infrastructure, such as roads.

"If we put a value on these trees for the landowners, it will keep them from clear-cutting the forests for planting cocoa or other crops," Beaver says.

New Horizons began by selling raw lumber from Ecuador but soon realized that finished flooring offered a prime business opportunity. "We were tapping 20 (percent) to 30 percent of the flooring market with raw wood, and now we offer finished flooring and can tap the entire market," Beaver says.

In February, New Horizons moved its offices from Ozark to 4268 S. Hillcrest Ave. in Springfield to be closer to the city. The company imports product to Houston or North Carolina and ships it by truck nationwide. New Horizons also is working with the Missouri Department of Economic Development, the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Ozarks International Trade Association to distribute its product in China and Europe.

Harvesting hardwoods

The harvesting process is labor-intensive. The Ecuadorian government marks the trees that are allowed to be taken, usually older ones, and they are harvested with a cabling method instead of a saw.

"You don't go in like when you're in Portland, Ore., and take big saws to cut trees down, because you'll take out everything around it," Gordon explains.

For each tree New Horizons harvests, it plants three trees. The company is allowed to cut one tree per acre at a time.

"At the rate that we cut, we could cut for the next five years and turn around and start all over again," Gordon says.

New Horizons imports Andean mahogany, cherry sapele, bloodwood and teak from Ecuador, and the wood is used for flooring, windows, doors, stairs or decking. The wood floors, which are finished in North Carolina, have nine coats of ultraviolet-protective finish with a 25-year warranty.

"People here usually like hickory, oak or teak," Beaver says.

Importing tropical hardwoods is a way to offer unique products at low prices. The retail price is comparable to other engineered and true hardwood floors, running $5.50 to $12.50 per square foot, depending on species.

New Horizons supplies several wood distributors in the Ozarks, including JAG Architectural Products, Cottage Castle Homes, Janss Lumber Co., OP Hardwoods, Herman Lumber Co. and Allen Stairways.

Allen Stairways first used the New Horizons wood for custom staircases and recently began selling the finished flooring.

"We cater to the upper end of the housing industry and we find that people now are doing more remodels and replacing carpeting with beautiful hardwood floors," says co-owner Dottie Allen. "This flooring is very different than what the average Joes sell around here."