Dylan Thomas: Black Forest Wood Co.

Visiting us on the show today is Dylan Thomas from Black Forest Wood Company. Black Forest Wood Co. is based in Calgary, Alberta and is going on their 26th year in business. Founded by Dylan’s father, Brad Thomas, the company has used hard work, ingenuity, and social media to explode their business and stay on top. (Even through hard economic times!)

In the early days of the business, Brad started to notice and grow tired of the waste he was seeing leftover from the wooden door projects. Being a passionate lover of everything wood-related, he thought of a simple way to address this problem- by opening a retail store where he sold these leftover off-cuts. Shortly after the store opened, customers who purchased these off-cuts started asking where they could find the tools that they needed for their wood projects. This led the company to expand once more and start selling tools out of the store.

In addition to the retail store, Brad Thomas always knew that he wanted to start a woodworking school for hobby woodworkers. He started the school with a courses on wood-turning and woodworking and now offers 12-15 courses covering various aspects of the woodworking world.

After the recession of 2008 hit, the Black Forest crew went from 6 employees to 1, and things looked bleak. However, with a retail store and the woodworking school bringing in alternate streams of revenue, they were able to stay afloat. The wisdom of Dylan’s father to not put all of his eggs in one basket paid off in dividends!