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Kurt Propst has made his life’s work out of supporting the local community.
Now, thanks to five decades of his and a handful of employees’ hard work and a European partner company that sought them out, his locally-produced log home products are introducing a bit of American ambiance to European markets with a couple of high-profile resort projects.
A fourth-generation sawmill man, Propst is just the latest to take the reigns of a business that began as an old-fashioned lumber company in 1883.
“I was about 28 when my dad decided to shut the business down,” he said, “And I thought ‘if I’m ever going to make the leap to working for myself, this is it;’ so I took over a business that was shut down with one building, with no employees and no raw materials. The first five years were a real uphill battle. He helped me out tremendously... so we changed the name of the company to start out fresh. Seven or eight years later I was able to buy his assets up, and we really got it going.”
Initially, Propst says the company sawed mainly hardwoods just like all the other mills in the area, but then he saw a video of the machinery milling logs for log homes and decided to try it out for himself.
The rest of the business grew from there.
During his tenure, he has taken Estemerwalt Log Homes to a whole new level despite his unconventionally old-fashioned business philosophy.
“I don’t really care to get bigger,” Propst said. “We’ve got great employees. That’s how we can do all this. It’s not important to me to be the biggest log home manufacturer in the country. I just want to do the best we can. If we grow, great, but it’s not the most important thing. I don’t necessarily want to be the biggest. I just want us to be the best. I think our customers think we are. It all comes down to a handshake. Just follow through on what you say you’ll do and the customers will be there.”
Contrary though it may be to the prevailing business philosophy, Propst’s way of doing things seems to have paid off, and shows no sign of weakening in a time when much of his competition has faltered.
Case in point: Estemerwalt Log Homes was the sole builder and provider of logs for a major indoor skiing, snowboarding and ice climbing resort in Bispingen, Germany. Located just south of Hamburg, the Snow Dome Resort Hotel is the first log cabin hotel in the country, a project Estemerwalt’s European representative Jorn Ravn says couldn’t have been done without them.
Kurt Propst has made his life’s work out of supporting the local community.
Now, thanks to five decades of his and a handful of employees’ hard work and a European partner company that sought them out, his locally-produced log home products are introducing a bit of American ambiance to European markets with a couple of high-profile resort projects.
A fourth-generation sawmill man, Propst is just the latest to take the reigns of a business that began as an old-fashioned lumber company in 1883.
“I was about 28 when my dad decided to shut the business down,” he said, “And I thought ‘if I’m ever going to make the leap to working for myself, this is it;’ so I took over a business that was shut down with one building, with no employees and no raw materials. The first five years were a real uphill battle. He helped me out tremendously... so we changed the name of the company to start out fresh. Seven or eight years later I was able to buy his assets up, and we really got it going.”
Initially, Propst says the company sawed mainly hardwoods just like all the other mills in the area, but then he saw a video of the machinery milling logs for log homes and decided to try it out for himself.
The rest of the business grew from there.
During his tenure, he has taken Estemerwalt Log Homes to a whole new level despite his unconventionally old-fashioned business philosophy.
“I don’t really care to get bigger,” Propst said. “We’ve got great employees. That’s how we can do all this. It’s not important to me to be the biggest log home manufacturer in the country. I just want to do the best we can. If we grow, great, but it’s not the most important thing. I don’t necessarily want to be the biggest. I just want us to be the best. I think our customers think we are. It all comes down to a handshake. Just follow through on what you say you’ll do and the customers will be there.”
Contrary though it may be to the prevailing business philosophy, Propst’s way of doing things seems to have paid off, and shows no sign of weakening in a time when much of his competition has faltered.
Case in point: Estemerwalt Log Homes was the sole builder and provider of logs for a major indoor skiing, snowboarding and ice climbing resort in Bispingen, Germany. Located just south of Hamburg, the Snow Dome Resort Hotel is the first log cabin hotel in the country, a project Estemerwalt’s European representative Jorn Ravn says couldn’t have been done without them.
"The Snow Dome Resort Hotel tried to find a log supplier for over a year,” Ravn said, “They were looking for someone who could meet their expectation and prices. They'd looked locally, in Poland and Russia as well, but were unable to find a company they felt could deliver the quality material and do a complete dry-in within a relatively short time-span. Their architect connected with our architect, and Estemerwalt Log Homes was able to deliver exceptional quality materials, supply the construction team and outstanding workmanship. It was – and is – a perfect fit."
“I’ve always been more of a handshake guy than a contract guy.” Propst says, a trait he says helped get his relationship off on the right foot with his European partner.
“He (Ravn) is like that too. He had been dealing with a log home company in Tennessee that went bust, so he was looking for somebody with just the right set of criteria. He was over here and we met with him and we clicked, we trusted each other.
“He was here during deer season, so we decided to give him a real flavor of what Wayne County was all about. We took him to a camp that was having a pretty primitive game roast and he had a really good time. The relationship just grew from there.”
A local company with operations halfway around the world is impressive, but as the largest log home manufacturer in the region, just about any log home you see in this area was produced by Estemerwalt, something he takes great pride in.
Why are his log homes so popular? In his own words:
“The reason I got into this business in the first place is because people were charging way too much for log houses. I approach the business from a value-added perspective as a sawmill operator, and 90 percent of the time, that allows me to charge much less than the competition while still producing a better home.”
With a daughter and a son-in-law learning the business now, Propst says the fact that he will someday hand the company off to a fifth generation family owner is important to him, as is the company’s benefit to the community it resides in.
“All our materials are made right here,” He says, sweeping his arm out over his sawmill from a rocking chair in the lobby of his Beach Lake office, “And almost all our raw material come from within a 50 mile radius of here. As a company, we do everything we can to buy local, because I believe the better your neighbor does, the better you’ll do. If you keep the money at home, everybody wins.”
For more information on Estemerwalt Log Homes, please call 1-800-515-2060, visit them online at www.estemerwalt.com, or follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/estemerwaltloghomes.
