With his wife Rebecca at his side, Wayne Battle founds the company in Wadley, Georgia. Battle Lumber Company begins as a single mill with eight employees producing furniture squares. By the end of the decade, Battle will have started a new mill on a different location in Wadley and begun producing lumber for the pallet as well as the furniture industries.
With the new Wadley location flourishing, Wayne makes the decision to begin manufacturing pallets on a much larger scale. This expansion would place Battle Lumber Company among the world’s leaders in pallet production by the close of the decade.
Wayne Battle welcomes the addition of his son, Tommy Battle, and son-in-law, Craig Miller, to Battle Lumber Company, Inc. Having grown up around the industry, these two help Battle to continue to expand as a leader in pallet manufacturing, taking its place as one of the largest producers of pallets in the entire country.
Not content with only producing pallets and lumber, Battle expands again in the late 80’s by installing a chip mill to meet the paper industry’s growing demand for hardwood chips. The ability of Battle to handle pallet wood and pulpwood increases the availability of grade logs in the early 90’s, which will prompt Battle to grow its presence in the grade lumber market. Planning begins for a new grade mill and the addition of a dry kiln operation.
In 1993, the dry kiln division is up and running, opening up the export market for Battle. Around this time, Wayne’s other son-in-law, Bob Swan, joins the company. Soon, the state-of-the-art Grade Lumber Mill will be complete, pushing Battle Lumber Company to the forefront of the industry.
In 1994, the new state-of-the-art grade mill starts up and will go on to become the largest producer of hardwood lumber on one site in the country. During the mid and late 90’s, Battle experiences exceptional growth and quickly becomes the dominant player in both the domestic and global kiln dried lumber markets.
In March of 2003, Battle decides to enter the burgeoning hardwood flooring industry by establishing BLC Hardwood Flooring in Macon, GA. After experiencing quick success in the unfinished flooring market, BLC will expand again and develop its own finishing operation to produce The Homestead Collection.
In 2006, Battle recognizes another opportunity to expand and makes the decision to establish Wood Fiber Technologies also located in Macon, GA to help further process its byproducts.
In 2014, Battle made the decision to expand its presence in the Industrial lumber and Timber markets. Having been a major player in the export grade markets for many years, Battle felt that the timing was right to construct a “one of a kind” industrial mill capable of producing unheard volumes of timbers and industrial lumber to the rest of the Hardwood world. This mill would break the mold of traditional hardwood sawmills and put Battle again on the forefront of sawmilling technology.
Enjoying the success of its “Timber Mill” operation, Battle again made a drastic decision to sell off its flooring operation (BLC Hardwood Flooring) and wood flour mill (Wood Fiber Technologies) to come back to its roots and focus solely on its sawmill and pallet operations. Plans to increase production of all products coming out of the Wadley facility were put into high gear accompanied by Battle’s plans to diversify into the Pine Lumber, timbers, and pallet markets.
After getting the first phase of the “Timber Mill” stable and running at top levels, Battle decided to move on to phase two which would consist of more equipment to again increase production capacity.
Today Battle Lumber has four 3rd generation saw millers working in the day to day operations. Running up the total of 9 total family members assisting in all aspects of the company from sales, timber procurement, operations, and financials. Family means more than just having the “Battle” name here; the list is too long to mention, but Battle takes great pride in other multi-generational family employees throughout the company and many long term employees that are like family.