Business at Architectural Woodworking Company has hit a trough. CEO Vincent Barraza wrote an anguished note — we posted it as a guest blog at WoodworkingNetwork.com — about losing a big bid in August. His Monterey Park, CA, firm lost out on a bid for a big California State Courthouse millwork project. His bid — $8.6 million  — came in second to that of Beaubois, Saint-Georges, Quebec, Canada.

Architectural Woodworking Company is a premium millwork contractor, one that boasted a healthy headcount of 95, producing a profitable sales volume of $12.5 million as recently as 2007. Now sales are under $1.8 million and just 20 employees remain. The lost bid was painful.

“Regrettably, 75 percent of this project will now be purchased and fabricated outside of our United States borders,” Barraza says. “AWC’s loss of this Courthouse project alone will cost the County of Los Angeles’ and the State of California’s economy $6,471,254 dollars of purchased goods, fabricated materials and jobs for 85 American workers, at our facility,” he estimates.

Anyone can empathize with his pain. Barazza was reaching high in bidding for a project of that scale, and to see it go outside his home state and the country stings. He calls for “the additional prerequisites for a concentrated domestic content, local manufacturing and an American [sic] labor requirement.” The realities of international trade, which can work to our advantage in many ways, may not allow for a “domestic content” condition in Federal bids, but local government bidding could be another matter.  

Turning over Every Rock
Looking for new types of work in new places is not just optional; it’s mandatory these days. Many woodworkers say they  have moved into remodeling. When its bread and butter luxury home market dried up, White Oak Timber Frames moved to preparing beams for restoring 19th century barns near its Suttons Bay, MI.

Urgent demand for wood structures and interior appointments used in staging high end events and parties is another category of opportunity. Event Creative, a Chicago firm, keeps a carpentry shop busy, including CNC router, creating partitions and specialty displays and thematic furnishings for ritzy parties and fundraisers. Theatrical companies build out sets for every production. Maybe this presents a bid opportunity in your area.

Another area of growing demand is in the temporary retailing business, where the retail shops, called “pop ups,” have been growing in popularity. For the past few years, retailers in major markets have been establishing small pop-up shops, built quickly for short-term appearances — weeks, or months — in high traffic locations, e.g., outside stadiums for championships, in empty mall stores, or in seasonal music venues. Target and eBay have opened them; Toys-R-Us created 600 of them for the 2010 holiday season. A Detroit downtown pop-up is being shared by multiple retailers from a suburban mall. And Austin, TX, is looking at adjusting its building codes to allow for the trend, which also lets retailers test locations before a permanent move. Big consumer brands like Nike also do them. The one-off stores are part publicity gimmick. Yet they can require a significant attention to consumer experience, with opportunities for wood interiors and exteriors.