About Us
History of AWMV
AWMV is a division of Wood-Mizer Products Inc. whose product line includes portable bandsaw mills, purchased and used mostly by individuals such as farmers, ranchers, and woodlot owners. The AWMV line was created to produce larger, more productive, ultra-efficient sawmill products used by commercial hardwood and softwood producers and processors. One of the keys to our success has been the ability to develop thin-kerf cutting techniques, which produces less waste and uses less energy in the manufacturing process, requires fewer logs, and leaves more trees standing in the forest. We were the pioneers of today’s popular thin-kerf narrow band sawmilling, and in the process, changed the way business was done, creating an entire new industry.
Wood-Mizer was founded in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1978 by Don Laskowski and Dan Tekulve. They produced their first portable sawmill 1982, manufactured in New Point, Indiana, near Dan Tekulve’s home. As the product gained popularity and the business grew, offices were opened in Portland Oregon, Newnan Georgia, and Hannibal New York. Today, the Indianapolis campus occupies 150,000 ft in eight buildings on 13 acres, the New Point IN, manufacturing facility occupies over 60,000 ft, and a third manufacturing facility takes up 55,000 ft in Lizton IN.
In 1990, Wood-Mizer Poland was established in Kolo, Poland, paying homage to the Polish ancestry of the Laskowski’s, and expanding the scope of the international markets that were just beginning to be served by Wood-Mizer at that time. Wood-Mizer Poland grew from a sales office then, to today’s manufacturing facility in excess of 50,000 ft2. Products are produced in Kolo to serve the European, Asian, and African markets.
In 1997, Wood-Mizer purchased Lastec, Inc., a company started and owned by Jeff Laskowski, Don’s son. Lastec produced commercial turf equipment, and the acquisition diversified the product line and added another manufacturing facility in Lizton, Indiana. Lastec mowers are unique in their ability to articulate, and over 25 of the top 100 golf courses in the world maintain their roughs with a Lastec mower, including the Home of Golf - St. Andrews, in Scotland.
Today, Wood-Mizer has sales offices or agents in over 60 countries, with sales in over 100 countries, and a customer base of over 40,000. The company employs over 500 people, in jobs ranging from manufacturing, to customer service, to high technology development. Today, sales from exports generate nearly as many dollars of sales as U.S. domestic sales do.
Our customers have done many good things with our products, including the young couple building a log home, to the missionary using our mills to build hospitals, churches, and schools, or a formerly unemployed factory worker who now owns a successful sawmilling business.
At Wood-Mizer, our workers truly believe in doing the right thing for the right reasons. Since the company's beginning, Wood-Mizer's shareholders chose to donate 10% of any profits that the company made. Over the years, Wood-Mizer's tithe has benefited schools from Indiana to as far away as Africa and the South Pacific. Locally, the corporation annually contributes to dozens of projects - construction of a new YMCA, volunteer fire department funding, expanding a church camp, and sustaining the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, zoo, and museums, just to name a few.
Wood-Mizer encourages its employees to take mission trips to places where the need is especially great. The company takes care of many of the travel expenses, and matches vacation days taken for the trips. Our dedicated employees have traveled to Poland, Haiti, Honduras, Panama, Ukraine, Brazil, Alaska, and Costa Rica. Wood-Mizer has participated in treating the sick & hungry, drilling wells, reforestation, creating jobs, building missionary aircraft and landing strips, shipping emergency supplies, and developing new food sources. What begins with kindness ends in hope. It's part of the Wood-Mizer philosophy.
In 2004, both of the company founders sold their stock to the employees through an ESOP, which is a qualified retirement trust that benefits the retirement of the Wood-Mizer employees. The trust borrowed money to buy Don and Dan's shares and paid off that loan. In 2007 the ESOP purchased the balance of the shares in the company so that Wood-Mizer is now 100% owned by the employees through the ESOP.