Business View Magazine | April 2021

74 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE APRIL 2021 is not going to be found at your cookie cutter home center,” Slaughter explains. “Every time a customer walks in and asks for a unique product that somebody once knew how to make – somebody who didn’t have a good business succession plan for how they’re going to continue to make these things and now it’s no longer readily available – that leaves a growing window of market share that’s unoccupied. Some of the demand will transfer to using a home center commodity: ‘we’ll use this substitute instead’. We happen to live in a world where we see a growing share of what you would call niche business or specialty business. We try to add some scale to it, and to tell people they still do have other options… we can do it! We still have a team of experts.” The sale of specialty lumber products is poised for increased momentum. The more Elk Creek Forest Products successfully meets the needs of those customers, the more their reputation