SCM Group Mock Woodworking Melds.

Don't try to attribute Mock Woodworking Co.'s great growth to magic formulas or secret strategies, much less dumb luck

"Like everyone else we did it with technology, dedicated employees and repeat customers," says Doug Mock, owner of the Zanesville, OH, company.

That solid base of repeat and referred customers has pretty much been growing ever since Mock's father founded the business as a kitchen and bath shop back in 1954. Sales growth has naturally followed. The company's sales hit nearly $9.7 million in 1999, up more than 53% from the previous year.

Dual Production Capacity

Like many architectural millwork companies, Mock Woodworking maintains a solid wood operation in addition to panel processing capability. The company's newest major acquisition helps on the panel side of the equation. It's an IDM model 66/20 edgebander, supplied by SCM Group USA.

"We needed a bigger machine that could do corner rounding, which we didn't have before," Mock says.

Other, smaller machines purchased from SCM are used on the solid wood side, including a SCMI R9 router and a SCMI T-130 shaper.

One piece of SCM equipment is used in both operations, a Morbidelli Author 504 point-to-point machining center. "It has two routers, horizontal and vertical drilling, and a saw," Mock says. "The Morbidelli is a critically important machine for us."

While the Author 504's main job is machining casework components, it is also used in the production of some solid parts -- especially those featuring radiuses.

"For example, we'll make blanks for the radiused solid wood edges of tabletops on the machine," Mock says. The blanks are later profiled on a shaper.

Shifting from one type of operation to another is accomplished much more efficiently with a computer keyboard and mouse than a pocketful of wrenches. "We can change the CNC machine over to process whatever we can draw on AutoCAD, just through programming. And the programming is done primarily in the office," Mock says.

"The routers on the machine are set up for machining solid wood or panel products -- they'll process either one," he says. "We use the same carbide tooling for both."

'Split Personality'

Such versatility is invaluable given that the company's product mix -- produced by 50-plus employees at Mock Woodworking's 45,000-square-foot facility -- has something of a split personality,

"About half of our business is store fixtures and institutional casework, what we call repetitive manufacturing," Mock says. "The other half is true architectural woodworking."

Interestingly, Mock says producing a diverse range of projects has helped rather than hindered his company's growth. "The mix of repetitive and architectural helped us to grow. If it had all been architectural it would have been more difficult to grow at that pace," he says. "The repetitive work is less complicated."

Both kinds of work have one very important thing in common, however. They are generated by relationships with customers that have evolved over time.

"Even the architectural work is initiated through relationships -- with architects, general contractors and owners," Mock says. These are the people with whom Mock and his employees work closely with, and they largely determine what the company is producing at any given time.

"Jobs come in a variety of forms," Mock says. "Sometimes they're hard bid, sometimes they're negotiated and sometimes they're a repeat of something that we've done before."

Pricing and working drawings are based on the architectural plans and specifications. The working drawings are submitted to the customer for approval, then later tweaked on a personal computer to match dimensions as measured in the field. Once a job is built, installation is typically handled by subcontractors with whom the company has worked before.

Industry Trends

Mock ponders a question: Does anything stand out in the company's recent work experience that foreshadows any trends in the architectural woodworking industry? "We seem to be producing more flat and radiused paneling with an emphasis on anigre, cherry, maple and hickory species," he says.

Of course, some customers have ideas that push the envelope. For example, Mock Woodworking is just completing a corporate headquarters for a veneer company. "We used more than 45 different species of exotic woods," he says. "The job involves paneling, furniture and wood ceilings."

Another current job requires working with fewer wood species but a lot more people. "It's a 26-story luxury condominium building," Mock says. "We're doing the whole thing: lobby, doors, trim, kitchen cabinets and bathrooms." Keeping 100 different homeowners happy adds to the challenge he says.

If jobs like these suggest a trend, it may be that architectural woodworkers will need to have the manpower, technology and flexibility to be prepared for the extraordinary. Good thing for Mock Woodworking, its owner thinks his company has the required trifecta.

SCM GROUP USA proudly salutes Mock Woodworking Co. of Zanesville, OH. Mock Woodworking was one of many SCM GROUP customers featured in Wood & Wood Products 11th Annual WOOD 100 Report, published last September. Look for further installments profiling SCM's fast-growing clientele in upcoming issues.

Mock Woodworking Co.'s Growth Record
1999  $9,679,000
1998  $6,297,000
1997  $6,001,000

WOOD 100 Rank

Ranked No. 22 in the 2000

WOOD 100