Business View Magazine | September 2022

99 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 9 to another country,” he says. “My family told me it was great I was going to get my own postal code because they planned to keep theirs.” “So, I had quite a bit of incentive,” he laughs. Eventually, in 2008, the company was established, and Lennon and Friolet grew it from a two-person gig into the thriving company it is today. ThermalWood Canada currently employs 10 employees who work out of a 46,000 square foot facility. All manufacturing is done inside the facility; only some wood stock is stored outside for weathering purposes. “Besides the employees, my son (Jonathan) and my wife (Suzanne) also work here,” says Lennon. “Jonathan works in the front office with me, managing various administrative tasks, while Suzanne, who recently retired from a 40-year nursing career, works in the custom shop out of the back and recently released a bespoke furniture line.” Lennon says that the small size of the team and a family-oriented culture have resulted in a long tenure for many employees, with some having worked there since the company’s inception. ThermalWood Canada sells all its products directly to customers and uses only one logistics partner –Weston Forest – for all the distribution and fulfillment work in Ontario. Lennon notes, “A couple of years back, we came to an agreement with them on how to structure our distribution model, and it’s worked so well that we are more of partners now, with each party freely sharing information with the other.” He maintains that they sell directly to customers because the industry is prone to shortcuts and poor-quality products. “Thermal treatment is a fairly new technology that many people don’t understand . When the industry started in North America, some companies started cutting corners to reduce operating costs, impacting wood longevity and spoiling the industry’s reputation in the process.” THERMALWOOD CANADA INC . ThermalWood Canada does not cut corners in any of its processes and faithfully follows all the conventions laid out by the International ThermoWood Association, of which it is a member. “The thermal treatment process relies on strict guidelines if you want a particular outcome,” explains Lennon. “If you shorten the process, you will get a very different product with few of the properties of genuine thermally treated wood.” ThermalWood Canada uses the ThermoWood treatment process with three primary stages; the drying phase, where all moisture is removed from the wood; the heating phase, where the wood is subjected to high levels of controlled heat; and the curing phase. Although the International ThermoWood Association owns the