A good match

Total revenue has doubled since Josh Sharp purchased Spectrum Woodworking & Interiors in Oregon City, Ore., five years ago.

“Our sales our goal is where we should be, between $10 and $12 million in top line revenue this year,” says Sharp. "When I bought the company, I think their biggest year was $4.5 to $5 million. We’ve experienced steady growth. We’ve gone up and down a little bit; we did close to $10 million and scaled back a little bit. It’s about testing capacity in what we’re able to do. We have a steady growth plan, and our growth is about 15 percent per year.”

Operating out of a 23,500-sq-ft. shop in the suburbs of Portland, the company currently employs about 45, including help in the shop, front-end, and installers. It sets itself apart from the competition by strictly focusing on specialized commercial work, such as tenant improvement in corporate offices, high-rise buildings, and single location offices.

Sharp purchased Spectrum in May 2019 from the original owner, Bo Corcoran, who founded the company in 1988.

“Bo was retiring and looking to make an exit. I responded to an ad online that a company was for sale. I did not know it was woodworking. I walked through the door, liked it, and met the existing team.”

Originally from Michigan, Sharp moved to the Portland area in 2009 as a salesman for a different manufacturer in the building envelope industry.

"It was still construction related, so I was still working for commercial and institutional clients through architects. My background is construction. My family’s been builder/developers for 50 years, so I feel very comfortable in the commercial construction related space even though manufacturing’s a whole lot different than general construction.”

The purchase included the machinery, client list, goodwill, and all the basics, except for the shop itself. The original building was about 20 minutes away in Canby, Ore.

"I was going to lease the building, but right when we were negotiating, the building was sold to somebody else, so we needed a new home. We went from 27,000 square feet down to 11,000 square feet in that same building, so we did that move, and six months later we picked up the whole shop and moved it all here."

At the time of the sale, there were about 30 employees. The entire existing staff stayed for the transition, and those with a key role within the office are still there today. There are now about 18 in the shop and 15 on the front end. Sharp oversees day-to-day operations with help from hisright-hand man, general manager Adam McNamara.

The architects and general contractors that Sharp formerly worked with as a salesperson havehelped him navigate the area’s commercial interiors market.

“We have relationships with designers, but most of our work is bid to commercial general contractors. We probably have almost 15 we work through regularly which is nice because I know there are a lot of companies that have two or three GCs that do all their work. It’s nice to have a lot of irons in all the fires. We’re very diversified, and we have a pretty broad range of clients.

“We are starting to branch out into the Seattle/Tacoma markets. The furthest we’ve gone is three hours away from our shop, but most of our work, I’d say 60 percent, is within 10 miles from here.”

In addition to commercial tenant improvements, the company also does some institutional work for city, county and local governments.

“Class A and Class B office spaces are primarily our bread and butter. We do some work in educational institutions. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to say we go to a school occasionally, even though it’s not a market we focus on. We do work in city and county courthouses and libraries,too. We tend to do a fair amount of law offices. They typically have a larger square footage in hi-rise buildings.”

The shop features a Schelling FH4 panel saw, Holz-Her Auriga 1308 XL edge bander, and Anderson Selexx 512 CNC. There’s also a backup Morbidelli CNC, an older Gannomat Index 230 drill and dowel machine, and a Gannomat Concept 70 case clamp.

“We make Euro-style slab commercial casework. We do not do residential-style doors. I would say 85 to 90 percent of what we do is pretty traditional Euro-style boxes for commercial,” says Sharp.

“We're primarily limited to a lot of laminate and veneer, which would incorporate some hardwoods and solid woods. We see a lot of oak, a lot of walnut. We don’t use a whole lot of super exotic woods. Everything is custom that we do, but we don’t get the liberty to do things like you would see in the very high-end residential sector. But we do grain matching on veneers and wall panels and flitchings and all that.”

A customized spray booth allows for all types of finishing options.

“Most of our work is toned and stained wood. Whitewash was popular two years ago. We do very little with paint, but we do paint. You get a better project with tone and stain. Paint is susceptible to damage when being shipped, so for those projects we will do the priming and try to leave the painting to the painters on-site.

Spectrum is a two-year member of the Architectural Woodwork Institute and participates in the organization’s workshops and other functions for business furtherment.

Spectrum is currently booking into 2025.

“We’re having our best revenue year that we’ve had. At this point in time, we’re just about fullfor the year. So, we’re having to get more selective,” says Sharp.

“The backlog is a good thing. But it's challenging because we have to say no to a lot of people that have good work because we’re already so full. We know there’s a ton of good work that we haven’t even seen yet that’s just going to continue to come out. Most of our work runs on 12 to 16-week cycles because it’s commercial.”

Sharp adds that the company has competition.

“I could probably identify two or three in town I could name who we closely identify with as far as size and scope. They’re certainly bigger shops but a lot of the bigger shops in Portland don’tdo the type of work we do — they focus on different markets, [such as] hospitality retail fixtures.We don’t do any of that type of work or very little. And then you’ve got your smaller companies where they only want to do casework. We like a good mix and i think that’s a very gooddifferentiator from your standard, smaller shop.”

Sharp says the growth will require the company to expand operations soon, by either getting a new building or a second location.

“It’s very difficult to find space and very expensive out here. Property is a premium. Finding space is a challenge. We can find a building, but it has to be a good return on investment. It needs to make sense in that it has the infrastructure we need when we move into it.”

About four employees were added to the office staff in the past year. Spectrum is actively hiring in the shop.

“Labor is obviously a big challenge these days. It’s a growing concern how we onboard and train, and we might have to create our own talent groups.”

Moving forward, Sharp, and McNamara are focused on keeping in touch with the market and how things are changing. He says the two describe the operation as a “Purple Cow”, as theirdifferent backgrounds help the company remain unique and interesting to clients.

“As a non-woodworker running a woodworking manufacturing business, I think, makes us unique. Most businesses like this were started by someone that came from the woodworking industry, whether they were a fabricator or installer. Neither of us came from that industry, which I think is an advantage. It gives us a different view on the industry as a whole. I think we make decisions differently than a traditional woodworking company would,” says Sharp.

Learn more at spectrumwoodworking.com.

Originally published in the October 2024 issue of Woodshop News.