You can read the full history if you want, but the short version is WallGoldfinger got its start in 1971 and spent the majority of its years in a mill in Northfield, Vt., alongside the Dog River. That was until August of 2011 when the river left its banks during Tropical Storm Irene and the factory fell fate to major flooding like so many businesses and homes in the state on that day most of us won't soon forget.

 

We lost a lot that day. Equipment, from hand tools to major machinery; supplies. But what we didn't lose - people, talent, a will to continue - outweighed the magnitude of the devastation. After holding up fort in temporary offices and subbing out some of our work, we finally returned to full operations as one team in one location in July of 2012 when we moved into the former Ethan Allen factory in nearby Randolph.

 

While the building was not new, our space within it was completely redone to our specifications, sparkly clean, brightened by the many windows we added and filled with new or refurbished equipment organized according to lean principles. The result was then and remains five years later a modern, efficient, high-tech factory that finally lives up to the skills of the team working within it.

 

If we were to measure our company in human years it would be the wise, but still youthful and full of ideas 46-year-old. Our factory would be the fresh faced youth. In dog years, the factory might be still considered a puppy (the potty trained kind, of course), full of potential and room for growth.

 

But for all of our change (and there has been a lot as we evolve with the industry), some things still remain. At 5 or 46, whether roaring like a muscle car or humming like an efficient Prius and collecting some awards for environmental excellence along the way, we're still building great furniture. We're still having similar conversations with architect and design leaders around the world. And, we're still WallGoldfinger (just with some nice trimmings).