Rocky Mountain Forest Products’ Articles On Surviving Recession Resonate Today

Last summer, the Rocky Mountain Forest Products team decided to write a series of articles detailing their company’s journey through the 2008 recession. At that time, COVID-19 and its disastrous economics effect weren’t even a distant thought. Today, the unfolding series reads like an inspirational guide for surviving the current economic crisis spurred by the pandemic.

Rocky Mountain Forest Products is the largest lumber supplier in the state of Colorado. In their 45 years of operation, they have provided over 1 million customers with high quality decking products as well as fencing and siding materials.

The company’s current success, however, felt entirely out of reach during 2008 when nearly 40 percent of lumberyards nationwide went out of business. At that time, RMFP was barely staying alive.

“Our owner and his family were literally walking through this time frame day-by-day, focusing on making just enough to cover cash flow, pay the bills and take care of the staff that we had,” said Taylor Poole, Director of Marketing. “Every day was a battle, and plans we thought we had ironed out failed.”

The company is detailing this battle through their ongoing article series, “The Truth is Our Journey.” The series is published in the LBM Journal, the leading media company serving the lumber and building materials industry. It provides a candid look at RMFP’s struggle to adapt, survive, and ultimately thrive in spite of a crumbling financial market.

According to Poole, the hope in sharing this story is to help other building materials businesses survive a constantly changing economy. “Our industry has had too much of an us-against-them mentality, and we’re hoping that we can help other ma and pa building materials dealers across the U.S. learn what we had to do to run more efficiently and produce more profits,” said Poole. “A strong industry will benefit everyone.”

For RMFP, the recession forced them to make hard changes that ultimately made them a more streamlined and innovative company. “We birthed new ideas, some that worked and some that didn’t. We closed full locations in California and opened satellite locations on skeleton crews in Texas, Colorado and Oregon,” said Poole. “We got creative and overcame.”

The company will continue the series until their story is fully told, and Poole asserts that the COVID-19 challenges make these articles more important than ever.

“There are whispers of 2008 today with overnight market crashes and a lot of uncertainty and fear,” said Poole, but he wants readers to know that an ever-changing market is something that business owners must come to expect and learn to adapt to.

“The market either embraces businesses or it chews them up and spits them out,” said Poole. “Sometimes we have prior notice, sometimes we don’t. And the truth is that many of us experience both scenarios over our career-maybe multiple times.”

Poole said he hopes the series, written with transparency and even vulnerability, will help readers understand that they can walk through scary times and come out better for it.

To learn more about Rocky Mountain Forest Products and their wholesale building materials, visit www.rmfp.com or call (303) 647-9185.

About Rocky Mountain Forest Products

Rocky Mountain Forest Products is the largest supplier of lumber in the state of Colorado. They import lumber directly from the mills and sell it wholesale to retail customers. For more than 40 years, RMFP has been helping builders and homeowners complete their projects under budget.