RUMFORD – Clinton Bradbury’s entrepreneurial tendencies began early.
At age 8 or 9, he was collecting bottles and cashing them in, picking raspberries or digging worms, then going door-to-door selling them. He even bought kitchen knives wholesale, then peddled them to his neighbors in his hometown of Weld. He’d mow lawns or baby-sit. He was never happy doing just one thing.
Now, he owns several businesses and has just expanded to a 72,000-square-foot building complex along Route 2 that offers a huge variety of woods, from pine and oak, to the more exotic curly and birds eye maple and even some from Africa.
It’s Premium Specialty Hardwoods, a division of one of his several businesses, Premium Logyards Inc.
Bradbury bought the former Thurston mill last month from the River Valley Growth Council. Since then, the cavernous interior has been filling up with species of wood, for every purpose imaginable. There are thick, nearly 2-foot wide pine boards perfect for bar tops. There’s everyday lumber for the do-it-yourselfer. There are partially made furniture components.
The company supplies special hardwoods for wooden steering wheels, and just the right wood for creating raised panel doors and kitchen cabinets, and pre-finished wood floors.
“Wood is my passion and my love – the wood from the trees to the finished product,” he said.
Bradbury started as a logger in the 1970s after graduating from Mt. Blue High School.
From there, he established Bradbury Inc., a logging business that owns several log yards in Canada and Maine and a sawmill in Quebec. Then there’s Bradbury Enterprises, a construction and excavating firm. Dixfield Discount Fuels was started in 2000 and has grown to serve 2,500 customers.
He started buying logs in 1990. That business grew to Premium Logyards, and now, Premium Specialty Hardwoods.
“I could make a living cutting wood, but I feel good about making deals. I get a great sense of satisfaction,” he said.
And although he loves wood, he isn’t a cabinetmaker or a fine woods craftsman.
“I have the imagination but not the patience,” he said.
Instead, it’s the deals.
“I’m a risk taker,” he said.
Right now, he employs about 25 people in his several businesses. Within the next 12 to 18 months, he expects about 40 new jobs will be created at the new building.
The building complex on Route 2 about four miles west of town is open to the public. It has two showrooms. A 5,000-square-foot space displays partially or fully completed wood products. A 20,000-square-foot space houses thousands of board feet of lumber. A manufacturing facility is expected to be up and running within the next few months.
“I really am lucky,” Bradbury said.
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