Business Profile: Speonk Lumber Corp.
Owner: Shane Smith
Year established: 1946
Location: 207 Montauk Highway, Speonk, and 211 Mastic Beach Road, Mastic Beach
Phone: 631-325-0303 (Speonk) and 631-281-8744 (Mastic Beach)
Number of employees: 50
When World War II was over, two young brothers from Speonk wondered what to do to make a living. Before the war, they had salvaged and stored a lot of good lumber from houses destroyed by the Hurricane of 1938. With all those GIs returning from the service, they realized it was going to be a good time to make use of it.
So the brothers, Ed and Stan Wilczewski, founded a lumber supply company. The storage shacks they built are still there, hidden by modern additions, on the bustling site of Speonk Lumber Corp., and current owner Shane Smith is the third generation of Wilczewskis to run the firm.
Ed and Stan started their business in the right place at the right time, as a post-war building boom spread residential and commercial development eastward across Long Island. Today, the company sells a lot more than recycled wood — but a sophisticated environmental awareness is part of its mission. Speonk Lumber is the area’s only retailer of Green Mountain windows, which are made from lumber certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council to have been harvested, milled, transported and sold through an environmentally responsible process. To qualify as a vendor, the company had to obtain a “chain of custody” certificate from the FSC, which required special training for its personnel, according to Grant Werner, the company’s marketing director.
Speonk Lumber also carries Anderson and Marvin windows, a full line of cedar products, roofing, siding, decking, interior and exterior doors and mouldings. Delivery is free throughout Long Island, including shipments that require boom service and forklift-equipped trucks, Mr. Werner said. The millwork division sends out doors, windows and other millwork products in enclosed trucks to protect them from the weather.
The Speonk Lumber staff is trained to help customers select the right materials for their projects, coordinate deliveries and provide installation tips, according to the company’s website, www.speonklumber.com, and its salesman will visit work sites to take measurements and confirm details.
The company also has an architectural representative on staff to work with customers’ architects or recommend a local architect for a prospective project.
Both the Speonk and Mastic Beach showrooms are open Monday to Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The company e-mail address is [email protected] and the fax number is 631-325-1350.
