Woodroffe Sawmill, Inc.
Family owned and operated since 1930.
About.
Glenn William Woodroffe founded Woodroffe Sawmill in 1930 when he built his first portable Sawmill. He began traveling to near-by farms with his mill doing custom sawing. In the early 1930s he built a car and drove out to California on dirt roads to work in the logging camps. Although the wages were good for the time, the living conditions at the logging camp were so poor Glenn drove back home to Lee County within a year.
A self-taught engineer, he built, established, and sold several Sawmills in Southeast Iowa, and had one of the first automated Sawmills in the area powered by a gas engine. He bought timber along the Skunk and Mississippi Rivers in Des Moines County, setting up his sawmill on site. Glenn began to settle the sawmill at its current location outside of Denmark, Iowa, when he married Elda (Hasenclever) Woodroffe in 1949.
“Glenn Woodroffe Sawmill” was first incorporated in 1957, and in 1963, Glenn built and began operating the stationary Sawmill. In 1970, the company started building pallets for industrial use by hand and hammer and not long after used a nail gun.
Randy Woodroffe graduated from Iowa State University in 1974 and returned to home to work full time at the Sawmill. They bought their first automated nailing machine for building pallets in 1975 and have built pallets for manufacturing and industrial companies in the Midwest ever since. Currently, Woodroffe Sawmill operates with two Viking nailing machines and a Rayco nailing machine. Glenn worked in the Sawmill well into his 80’s until he passed away in 2002.
Randy has since taken over as the owner and operator, and the Sawmill continues to run as a successful family business.
Randy W. Woodroffe, President
Randy is the president, owner and operator of Woodroffe Sawmill. At a young age, he began working at the Sawmill next to his father, Glenn, the founder. Randy received his degree in Industrial Engineering from Iowa State University and has been building pallets since 1970. He is highly experienced at engineering solutions for pallets and wood packaging to meet the needs of a diverse array of customers.
Randy is the past president of the Iowa Wood Industry Association. Customer satisfaction is extremely important to him, and he makes a point of personally delivering pallets, crates and lumber to each customer.
Janice M. Woodroffe, Sales
Jan, has been working in the business since the early 1980’s. Jan has her bachelor and master degrees in elementary education and is certified in elementary education, elementary music, high school special education, as a high school and elementary principal, superintendent, and AEA administration. She retired from teaching in 2012, and works full-time in sales and purchasing for the Sawmill.
Nicole M. Blumenauer, Marketing
Nicole is the third generation to work for the Sawmill. She received her bachelor degree in political science from Iowa State University and law degree from Drake University Law School. She is the daughter of Randy and grew up working at the Sawmill. Communicating and building lasting business relationships with customers is a top priority for Nicole.
Nicole has published a article reviewing the international law that requires wood packaging be treated to prevent the spread of invasive species: "Analysis of ISPM-15 and its Impact on the Wood Pallet Industry," Spring 2010, Drake Journal of Agricultural Law.
