National Hardwood Magazine - July 2014

A Sun Mountain Inc.

A Sun Mountain Inc. employee hand-distresses an Alder door to give it a warm, aged look and feel. Sun Mountain Inc.’s Climb to Success By Clare Adrian Berthoud, CO—Word spreads when a company can backup superlatives about their products and services. Sun Mountain Inc., a premier manufacturer of custom wood doors based here, is just such a company. Founders John and Thad Walton took decisive steps from the start, and later extended the company’s product line to open the sales door well beyond its initial Colorado location. Though Colorado is still a significant part of company sales, Sun Mountain’s business reached 48 states and four provinces in Canada last year. Sun Mountain also expanded beyond its initial residential market, servicing projects such as hospitality and multi-family condos in recent years. Of course, high-end homes are still very important to the firm, just as when the Waltons first targeted these residential projects in large city and ski resort communities of Colorado at the company’s founding. The company buys up to 2 million board feet of lumber annually, including FAS and No. 1 grades in 4/4, 5/4, and 8/4 thicknesses. In inventory, the company carries 200,000 board feet in upper grade Hardwoods such as Cherry, Hickory, Walnut, White Oak (including rift and quartered cuts), African Mahogany, and Sapele. The company carries up to 800,000 board feet in Alder, in a mix of both select and rustic grades. Early in his career John Walton worked for Woodgrain Millwork, as a top salesman of Woodgrain doors and mouldings in the Midwest. But John had long harbored the idea of finishing and distributing doors on his own. In 1987, shortly after Thad Walton earned his college degree in marketing, father and son started Doors Plus Inc., a pre-finisher, pre-hanger and distributor of buy-in doors, headquartered in the Walton’s hometown of Elkhart, IN. The Doors Plus concept proved successful, and over time grew to a million company servicing a five-state region of the Midwest. Soon enough, the company’s success prompted the decision to expand. A market study guided the team to Colorado, and in 1998 the Waltons opened Sun Mountain Inc., building a 35,000-square-foot facility in the northern Colorado town of Berthoud (about 35 miles north of Denver). Sun Mountain began as a duplicate of the successful Doors 16 JULY 2014 ■ NATIONAL HARDWOOD MAGAZINE

COO Mike Jennings, General Manager Jared Meier, Owner Thad Walton, and CFO Ed Wright at the factory showroom in Colorado. Hang department lead Jeremy Burdick assembles an arched surround system for a home in Steamboat Springs, CO. Sun Mountain builds all of its products out of this 110,000-squarefoot facility in Northern Colorado. Plus model—a pre-finisher and pre-hanger of buy-in doors and complementary mouldings. Over the next six years the company experienced steady growth in Colorado. Further research revealed a shortage of higher-end custom doors and spurred the next spot-on decision by the Waltons. “We couldn’t find a ready supply of high-end wood doors, and so we evolved into manufacturing these doors ourselves,” Thad Walton reflects. “We became a full-fledged millwork manufacturer, investing in what has now become a state-of-the-art manufacturing operation.” This decision occurred in 2004, and the company experienced a surge of significant growth from 2004 to 2007, stimulated by the new high-quality Sun Mountain-made doors. Then, of course, the housing downturn happened, a “waterfall” economic decline that affected all building trades. Where many companies failed, Sun Mountain survived the downturn, and even continued to invest in new products and operations. The company now operates in a 110,000-square-foot production facility that houses manufacturing, administrative and sales offices, and a beautiful showroom on 10 acres of land. The company operates a fleet of delivery trucks used for regional deliveries, including box and curtain-side trucks. “And it’s all debt free, which is a key reason why we’re still here,” commented Walton. In 2008, the firm opened a boutique showroom in a design center in Asheville, NC—a fertile second and third home market in the Smoky Mountains. That same year, the company “We became a full-fledged millwork manufacturer, investing in what has now become a state-of-the-art manufacturing operation.” –Thad Walton, Sun Mountain Inc. launched its Teton Series—a line of value-priced 1-3/8” thick knotty Alder doors, positioned to compete with the growing influx of lower quality knotty Alder imports from overseas. The Teton Series reflects Sun Mountain’s high quality standard and is 100 percent made in the USA at the company’s Colorado factory. In 2009, in the midst of the downturn, Sun Mountain acquired an upscale flooring product line with associated manufacturing assets. “We wanted to supply more products in addition to our custom doors and mouldings, and fine wide plank flooring was a natural product line extension,” Walton stated. Marketed under the same Sun Mountain brand, the company’s wide plank flooring offering is available in both solid and engineered configurations, in widths up to 9-inches. And, the company offers the flooring with hand distress and factory pre-finish options, consistent with its hallmark as a pre-finisher. In 2011, Sun Mountain launched a high-quality paint grade door line in Poplar wood species. This line can be pre-finished with darker stains and glazes, creating a look similar to select Alder but at significantly lower cost. In 2013, the company opened two new showrooms—in Colorado Springs at the Coutura Design Inspirations center, and at the exclusive Please turn to page 34 JULY 2014 ■ NATIONAL HARDWOOD MAGAZINE 17