About Us
Middleton, N.H.-1938 brought the most devastating hurricane that the Northeast has ever seen. New Hampshire, in particular, was hit hard. Trees in forests throughout the state were uprooted, and devastation of woodlands lay strewn about in catastrophic proportion. It was through this tragic challenge that a staunch and hardworking family from Italy saw an opportunity to build a business that served the needs of the people in their region with a quality that still withstands the forces of nature today. When Charles DiPrizio and his sons endeavored with a portable saw mill to clean up a forestry nightmare in southeastern New Hampshire in 1938, their industrious pride served local neighborhoods and counties throughout the state. Now it serves lumber wholesalers throughout the United States with DiPrizio Pine.
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Diprizio Pine Mill facility in Middleton New Hampshire |
From the portable mill to several lane hand set saw mills, to the family's first automatic sawmill in 1968, much has changed for the DiPrizio company through the years. DiPrizio Pine Sales now manufactures 15 million board feet of Eastern White Pine annually, and it is now owned and operated by the Lavalley-Middleton family of companies. While Charles DiPrizio and sons were gaining momentum in their family business, another visionary leader on the western side of the state of New Hampshire, Harold Lavalley, was building a business in the lumber and building material industry. Being a lumberman at heart, with a fascination for manufacturing, Harold LaValley believed there was a better way to keep costs low for builders, all while delivering top-quality goods and services at lower prices for consumers. That passion to reduce the risks and create profits for builders brought Lavalley's dream of vertical integration to an uncommon but vibrant reality in New Hampshire when, in 1993, he joined with the DiPrizio family to embark on a 15-year mill renewal project at DiPrizio Pine Sales. It was at that time that the DiPrizio's sold their business to the LaValley family.
It was the mutual respect of old-time values, the recognition that "every
business is the business of people" from the vision of the founders and
the pride of the coworkers, to the sensitivity to the needs of the customers,
the ability to communicate, and the commitment to serve and build long-term
relationships-that first brought the DiPrizio and LaValley families together
in 1993. And it was those same values that laid the groundwork for the great
success that the Lavalley-DiPrizio combination of businesses has achieved
in its current manufacturing operations. The Lavalley-DiPrizio combination
is a regional family of companies, known locally as Lavalley-Middleton Building
Supply, with manufacturing operations that include the material wholesale
distribution of Eastern White Pine boards in unlimited patterns for flooring,
siding, paneling and trim boards, with numerous finishes and pre-stained
products. Lavalley-Middleton manufacturing also includes: residential and
commercial roof and floor trusses; prefabricated floor, roof, deck, and
wall panels; pre-hung door units; fabricated countertops; and even modular
systems-built construction. Employing over 400 career-minded people with
professional, expert service in areas of design, purchasing, manufacturing,
logistics, and service representatives, the LaValley-Middleton family of
businesses is very well versed in working with builders, architects, project
supervisors, and buyers at all levels. The goal is to partner with customers
in such a way that they can get everything to do with their job or project
directly from one of the LaValley-Middleton companies.
With the goal to be positioned and responsive to customers' needs while being reliable with on-time, quality-guaranteed shipments, careful scheduling and maximum control of every process from log buying to sawing, kiln drying and planing are hallmarks of DiPrizio Pine Sales' daily operations. The company uses computerized techniques to ensure accuracy; and, because of the firm's warehouse inventory system, most orders can be turned around within ten days. "Our goal as a wholesale distributor," says Larry Huot, President of DiPrizio Pine Sales, "is to help our wholesale clients avoid a duplication in handling and overhead by having us perform those same steps in our normal material flow. The net result is that our clients can be more profitable using DiPrizio services." DiPrizio Pine Sales is well known as a premier quality manufacturer, agile and versatile in serving specialty needs and niche markets on a high-volume basis. Not only does the company supply its products to LaValley-Middleton Building Supply stores, but lumber is also shipped throughout the United States-as far away as California.
Most of the DiPrizio brand name products, though, remain in the New England area where they are well known by craftsmen specializing in new building, renovation, and restoration projects. The unique character, workability, and aesthetic appeal of Eastern White Pine are available to these craftsmen in a timely and surprisingly affordable manner, due to the mill capacity at DiPrizio Pine Sales as well as to the company's resource-efficient practices.