Laura Sissoko: Atlantic Fine Woods
Laura Sissoko: Atlantic Fine Woods
Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast! Today, your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Laura Sissoko from Atlantic Fine Woods. Laura's story and the story of Atlantic Fine Woods began about ten years ago.
"I studied architecture in school, and I was interested in furniture design. And I had been working for a furniture designer in New York City for a while. My father saw an opportunity when Gibson Guitars was getting raided for having allegedly illegally sourced ebony and other exotic woods.
The country where I was born, the Central African Republic, had recently started a managed forest system with neighboring countries, The Congo and Cameroon. So we knew that we had a single chain of custody source for exotic woods, and that's how we started.
Several years into it, there was a coup d'etat in the Central African Republic, and we were no longer able to export ethically. That's when we had to switch to domestic wood, and that's when we also started hearing about urban lumber. So that was our next step, and it's thriving and doing great."
- Laura Sissoko
Adapting and Changing
From the time they started the company to now, a lot has changed. Not only have they swapped from importing exotic woods to harvesting domestic, but Atlantic Fine Woods has also been doing a lot more furniture projects over the last five years.
Since they are located in the urban center of Atlanta, they recognize that not everybody has the knowledge, tools, or space to make their own tables. So they have been doing a lot of custom work for their client base.
Currently, their main products are kiln-dried live edge slabs that they sell to other woodworkers and DIYers. Laura notes that the first few years of selling exotic woods were relatively slow since it was a new business. However, when they pivoted the company to selling domestic wood, they could use it as a marketing opportunity and go to all of the local papers and design blogs.
Knowing their Audience
As a result of pivoting their business model, Laura has found that their client base is far more interested in urban lumber than exotics. Additionally, Atlantic Fine Woods has managed to become the primary destination for people within the central area of Atlanta.
"Atlanta has this ring highway around it, and it's considered inside the perimeter and outside the perimeter are the kinds of cultures of Atlanta. For the most part, our customers are inside the perimeter, sort of city people.
I believe outside of the perimeter; there is access to sawmills and that kind of thing if you go maybe an hour and a half, two hours out of town. So we're mostly the city people, and our custom business has been growing beautifully.
What we'd like to do is open a retail store with tops and do work with a blacksmith. So we'd like to have people just kind of choose their tops and bases and do like that in a beautiful retail setting that is not a dusty warehouse."
- Laura Sissoko
