PIQUA, Ohio — The Hardwood Federation said that between 20022 and 2024, the hardwood industry lost 40,000 jobs, bringing hardwood product exports down $930 million.
A sixth-generation hardwood family business in Miami County is working to change that.
News Center 7’s Ava Petrosky toured the Hartzell Hardwoods facilities in Piqua on Thursday, where a member of the Small Business Administration visited to report the business’s needs directly to President Trump.
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Robert Kaebnick, CEO of Hartzell Hardwoods, said, “It’s a whole ecosystem. If you lose one piece of it, you lose it all.”
He is talking about hardwood. “Whether it’s pulp and paper, whether it’s creating and palleting and packaging, or its railroad ties,” Kaebnick said. He said there’s also veneer, flooring and furniture.
Hartzell Hardwoods was founded in 1875, making Kaebnick the sixth-generation CEO, but in the past five to seven years, he’s noticed some struggles.
“A lot of the challenges are substitute products and the exportation of our hardwood logs to China who have unfair business practices and subsidized labor,” Kaebnick said.
That is why Everett Woodel, the SBA’s acting chief counsel for advocacy, and his team toured Hartzell’s facility on Thursday. They are here to help small hardwood businesses like Hartzell’s and also M. Bohlkeve Veneer Corporation in Fairfield.
Nick Bohlkeve, President of M. Bohlkeve Veneer Corporation, said, “This is finally getting some eyeballs and some ears on it because I think it is a really big issue that a lot of people don’t really know exists.”
Woodel reports directly to the president. So Bohlkeve said it gives small businesses a needed voice.
“We have to go through advocacy. The majority, if not all, of our industry in the U.S. hardwood business is privately held companies. We’re small, we’re segregated,” Bohlkeve said.
Kaebnick said they are working on putting regulations in place that protect the industry. But they also have some other ideas.
Hartzell is building a 146,000-square-foot warehouse that will store all finished goods before they get shipped out. They are also expanding by building a new office building for more than 300 employees.
Kaebnick said he’s proud to continue the legacy of his great-grandfather.
“It has been important to the community. We’ve supported many families, many jobs here in the community,” Kaebnick said.
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