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Redwood Empire Awning &
Furniture
Redwood Empire Awning & Furniture
emphasizes quality, service, tradition. In its 55 years of
operation, Redwood Empire Awning & Furniture Co. has never once
been late in delivering a job.
"We're not the lowest priced awnings
manufacturer and installer you can go to, but we're
definitely tough to beat when it comes
to reliability of service," says Leon Lenney, vice president
and general manager. Not to mention
quality of product. "We're tough to beat on that as well," he
adds.
Redwood operates from an 8,000 square
foot building sitting on three- quarters of an acre in Santa Rosa,
Calif. The company employs 11, counting Lenney, his wife Marilyn
Lenney (president), and sons Michael Lenney (production manager)
and Gregory Lenney (installation manager). Marilyn Lenney also is
the majority stakeholder in the company, meaning Redwood is a
woman-owned business and therefore eligible for contracts with
agencies, organizations and other enterprises that highly prize
the participation of such firms.
WHAT'S IN A NAME
Since 1995, Redwood has been focused
on residential and commercial awnings, vertical
curtains, sliding roofs and
agricultural products. Prior to that time, the company also made
marine products. "We decided to exit
the marine business because there was so little of it to begin
with in this market that it didn't make sense for us to maintain
our in-house expertise in that speciality, "says Leon Lenney. And
although the word "furniture" appears in the company name, the
days when Redwood seriously carried such products have also long
ago passed. "A showroom was part of our facilities almost from the
very beginning, but we quickly realized the impracticalities of
having a showroom devoted solely to awnings," he says. "So we
decided to fill it with products that would complement the
awnings, and those happened to be patio furniture."
Competition from chain discount
outlets and warehouse stores in the late 1990s knocked
Redwood out of the patio furniture
game. Says Lenney, "The 48-inch outdoor table with a set of four
chairs that we sold for $1,500,a customer could pick up something
similar even though it would be of dramatically lesser quality at
one of the mass-merchandisers or even at the corner supermarket
for as little as $199. There was just no way to fend off a
challenge like that."
FAMILY OWNED
Redwood was started by Lenney's father
in the 1940s. The faltering health of Lenney's
mother prompted his father to move the
company in 1951 from smoggy Los Angeles to the
northern half of the state where the
air was cleaner. "We initially weren't allowed to set up shop in
Santa Rosa," Lenney recalls. "The city told us they already had an
awning shop in town and no need for a second one. For a while,
they refused to give us a business license. "Lenney's father
wasn't known as a quitter, so he found a way around the barricade
erected by the city against him.
"He turned the tables by finding a
place just outside the city limits, then obtained a license that
allowed him to make deliveries within the city. By law, they
couldn't refuse to issue such a license," says Lenney. The
delivery license strategy was still in place in 1985 when Lenney's
father retired and ownership of the business was transferred to
Lenney, who had for several years prior been the company's
manager. "I decided at that point to try again to obtain a
business license from Santa Rosa," he tells. "My efforts were so
effective that, not only did I not win a business license, I also
was ordered to obtain a license supplemental to the delivery
license one that would permit me to also install awnings inside
Santa Rosa."
In the early 1990s, Lenney acquired a
piece of prime real estate, again just outside Santa
Rosa, to serve as the home of an
expanded operation. "By this time, my two sons had conveyed their
desire to one day in the future assume the reins of the company,"
he says, "so I felt that the best thing I could do to help them in
that regard was to relocate to an even better site than the one
we'd had all those years."
MAKE IT RIGHT
When the company first arrived at
Santa Rosa's outskirts, survival was a daily struggle. But within
a few short years, Redwood was doing well, thanks to a policy of
eagerly taking on the small, unglamorous jobs the competitors
refused. "We were willing to do everything and anything that
involved exterior fabrics," says Lenney. Willingness to accept
jobs the others wouldn't was key. But so was Redwood's quality
workmanship.
"We had extreme expertise no one could
match," he insists. "My dad was the last of the
government-rated technical canvas
specialists in the nation a distinction conferred during
World War II on fabricators qualified
for defense contract work. And I myself, I made my first
awning when I was 10." A philosophy
that's guided Lenney throughout the years was taught to him by his
father. "My dad told me to hang every awning as if it were being
done for my own mother,
bearing in mind how particular she can
be about handiwork and having it done right," he
remembers.
LEGACY TIME
Another piece of counsel offered him
by his dad was to always own up to errors and then take all
necessary steps to correct them. "We don't make mistakes often,
but when we do, we fix the problem if the customer will so allow," Lenney confides. "In our book, the job's never done until the
customer is fully satisfied."
The next generation of Lenneys will
one day soon carry forward Leon's and his father's legacy, perhaps
taking Redwood to new heights never before imagined. "I'll look
back with a great deal of pride at what we've accomplished and
what's yet tocome," says Lenney.
(Visit Redwood Empire Awning &
Furniture Co. on the Internet at
www.reaco.com.) |
