Quick Facts
Owners: Bruce Craig, Vernon Craig, and William Craig.
Date Started: Bruce Craig started the business in 1983.
Expansion over the Years: In 1991, a plumbing division was added, and in 2006, Craig Wood Products was started.
Location: When the business first began, it was located in Summerside, P.E.I. Then in 1991, they moved operations to Northam, P.E.I.
Interesting Fact: The company, which is currently for sale, is the only approved stamped kiln-dried lumber company in P.E.I.
Sustainable forestry and quality lumber are what drive Bruce Craig and his brothers to stay at the forefront of their industry. But this isn’t without its difficulties. “Our father was killed when we were kids and there were nine of us, so I started working in carpentry when I was 13. I was the fourth oldest when it happened, and I was only six, so we didn’t have it easy,” said Craig.
Putting aside 10 percent of his earnings for himself and the rest going to the family, Craig would eventually use some of the money he saved up to go to carpentry school. Not long after graduating, he noticed there wasn’t consistent work in his field, so he decided to start his own company in the fall of 1983. This company would turn into what is now Craig Wood Products. “That’s one of the main reasons I started the business, because there wasn’t enough work. And we worked really hard to get ourselves full-time work, and then when we got ourselves full-time work, we started getting our men full-time work,” says Craig, adding they haven’t had to lay anyone off since they started.
In addition to the construction business, the brothers started cabinet making, plumbing, and wood product businesses. They didn’t turn down work and would do new home construction, home renovation, finishing, plumbing, and heating services. Often, they found themselves working 17-hour days, seven days a week, paying themselves only a fraction of what they worked to get the company off the ground. Sometimes added challenges would make things more difficult, like finishing a contract only to find out the clients wouldn’t pay. However, they always made sure to “still pay our men and pay our suppliers,” says Craig.
The brothers would put a mechanic’s lien on the building, and if it was ever sold, they could get their money back that way, which worked a few times. “I still had to go back to the bank a few times to borrow money to pay the bills because of that; it’s just the way it is. As long as you’re not in the red and can pay yourself, then you’re successful,” says Craig.
Another setback the company experienced was during office and kiln expansions in 2005. At the time, they weren’t taking on as much work because they were building their own buildings when the bank panicked, asking them to repay their loan. “So, we had six months of quite the turmoil there, but we eventually got through it,” says Craig, adding they went to a P.E.I lending agency who gave them the funds to buy out their credit union loan.
Then in 2008, after their expansion was completed, Craig and one of his brothers worked all winter without pay, making just enough to pay the mortgage. “That was another struggle, and we did that just to keep it going. We were able to start paying ourselves again after the winter,” says Craig.
That same year is when Craig noticed an opportunity in the market. He would often build cabinets and found he couldn’t find high-quality dry wood; everybody who dried it would have a high moisture content. He had the idea to produce kiln-dried wood and do it sustainably. “You can’t make cabinet doors like that because they warp,” says Craig. “That’s how we got into that; it was because of improving quality and quality control.”
Lumber producers are required to only dry lumber under 19 percent, but the lumber Craig Wood Products produces comes in under five percent and collapses the cells, so moisture can’t get back in. “The biggest thing now that we do is sawing and kiln drying all island wood, 100 percent island wood, and we stamp lumber too. We’re also the only kiln operator left on P.E.I.,” says Craig.
Along with producing their own construction lumber, they also sell wholesale, providing stamped lumber for larger projects and selling unstamped lumber for smaller projects. The company is “also a big-time green company,” says Craig. Heating all their buildings with their waste wood, they send all their sawdust and wood shavings to the Summerside race track and repurpose as much wood as possible. The brothers were the first to ever build an energy-efficient R-2000 home on P.E.I., which is a home rated 50 percent more energy-efficient than standard new homes built to code.
“I look at it like this, if you’re going to heat your house, why not insulate it as much as you can? It costs a little more when you build it, but then after so many years you get that paid off. Then you recover, so your energy bill is much less so that money goes into your pocket after a while,” says Craig.
They own and maintain large woodlots and practice selective harvesting techniques, removing trees that are nearing the end of their life cycle allowing the new growth to thrive. This creates a complex multi-age forest that is better suited to withstand natural disasters, pests, and disease. “There’s a bit of a science to it,” says Craig. “You look at every tree you need to cut down and use all of the lumber.”
Craig is also a founding member of the P.E.I. Woodlot Owners Association and is a past chair of the organization. Barry Murray, the Project Coordinator with the P.E.I. Woodlot Owners Association, says the stewardship Craig has for the island’s forests doesn’t go unnoticed. “His (Craig’s) knowledge of the forest industry is complemented by his passion for sustainable forestry, growing a wide variety of species, caring for the future of his and other woodlots and managing forests for future generations,” says Murray.
“I still had to go back to the bank a few times to borrow money to pay the bills because of that; it’s just the way it is. As long as you’re not in the red and can pay yourself, then you’re successful.”
Last year, Craig Wood Products did a selective harvest after Hurricane Fiona to remove fallen trees. In late summer 2023, they finished up doing a similar venture for the city of Charlottetown. And, after Post-Tropical Storm Dorian came through in 2019, there were a lot of trees down in Charlottetown, so the brothers took them to their business, sawed them, kiln dried them, and manufactured them into various items. “We made two really nice boardroom tables for city hall out of the wood that came out of the trees,” says Craig. “All the rest of the lumber that came with it, we kiln dried it and milled it and the city took it back, and they’re using it in the parks, benches and all different kinds of stuff around the city.”
Craig says one of their most interesting projects to date was repurposing a former crab boat, transforming it into a yacht. “It was a really neat project. It’s actually owned by the Arctic Research Foundation and we did all the work right in Summerside,” he says. The Arctic Research Foundation also hired a team from their company to go out to Vancouver and redo the inside of another ship as well. “The creative stuff is where I do a lot of stuff now,” says Craig, who focuses on detailed wood craft.
“We made two really nice boardroom tables for city hall out of the wood that came out of the trees. All the rest of the lumber that came with it, we kiln dried it and milled it and the city took it back and they’re using it in the parks, benches and all different kinds of stuff around the city.”
The business has about 10 employees and a retail area at their office in Northam, P.E.I. selling detailed handmade products such as railings for stairs, cribbage boards, wooden utensils, and various other things. “A really neat piece here right now that I’m working on is going to be a boardroom table or dining room table,” says Craig. “This one is very unique, very unique. There’s three pieces that look sort of like a moose and I put them together and created six little wings that came out.”
The brothers all have plans to retire and, without anyone to pass the business onto, it’s currently listed with a realtor. Craig says they had a bit of interest early on but not many inquiries as of late. “If somebody comes along and wants to buy the place and they also want me to stay involved, I will stay for a while. That’s kind of the idea so that we can transition somebody into it,” he says.
Craig enjoys his time working with family. Looking back on the business, he says, “If you’re going to have your own business and you want to make big money right away, you might as well forget about becoming an entrepreneur.” “I made a living working for myself. I did work hard for it, but I’m proud of what I’ve done. I was able to make a living and take care of my family.”
