After 47 years of owning and operating Thomas & Milliken Millwork, Inc., Northport residents Andy and Gloria Thomas announced last week that they are selling their millwork company to Michigan businessmen Jarred Copeman and Joe Abdou.
The company will retain the name Thomas & Milliken Millwork at its three warehouse locations in Northport, Traverse City, and Petoskey, as well as all 23 of its employees. The millwork shop produces custom moldings, doors, stair parts, and architectural components. In addition to samples of its custom work in their showrooms in Traverse City and Petoskey, there are displays of manufactured windows, doors, and hardware, and warehouses with stock trim and paneling.
“We’ve been doing this for 47 years and it’s time to retire and let someone else take it over and grow the business further,” Thomas said. “We really liked their attitude and outlook on this business and they seem to be very eager to take it over and carry it on the way we had begun the business, and they were very excited about our employees. We knew they’d be a good combination, the employees and the new owners thought this was the best future for the company.”
Thomas & Milliken often served new construction and remodeling in Michigan, gaining a reputation for high quality woodwork that has won them projects throughout the U.S. to as far as Canada and the Cayman Islands. Since starting the business in 1977 and selling furniture in Northport, the company’s reach and millwork products have been sold across the country.
“When you go into Home Depot, you can’t find what we do, these are the (custom) things that lumber yards can’t make or can’t produce,” he said. “The Northport location was built in 1985-86, and we have about 28,000 square feet, half of that is shop and half of that is warehouse, but we started on Northport’s South Shore Drive at my parents’ walk out basement that I enclosed… I closed it in and started making woodwork there.”
According to a recent press release, the Thomas’ are particularly excited that Jarred and Joe, with backgrounds in business, finance, and machining, are enthusiastic about the company and its prospects. In addition, they’re eager to continue the activity in the local communities that Thomas and Milliken serve. Since the company sold, one of the new owners, Copeman, has already relocated to the Suttons Bay area to start in the new business venture.
“It was more about who the people were, we wanted someone who would move or be here — In other words, not a remote owner that just sent over a manager to run it, we wanted someone to be feet on the ground here,” he said.
The location in Northport will continue serving as a meeting place for local non-profits such as New Community Vision, a group established to acquire the former Timber Shores property and one that Thomas is a board member of. Other groups like the one that began the annual Leelanau Uncaged festival at Thomas’ shop in 2013, got their running start within the walls of the business. These community non-profits are just some of the things that the couple will spend their time on now that the business is sold, along with traveling and spending time with family and friends.
“Jarred and Joe are going to carry on that tradition of hosting non-profits, so we’ll do that and we’ll be doing a little traveling,” he said. “We’ll be here to consult, drop in, and see how they’re doing.”
Thomas said the support from the community, whether it was from customers, managers, carpenters, painters, architects, or designers, is very appreciated and has helped grow and shape the company into what it is today.
“I’ll miss the interaction with our employees and customers,” he said. “Working in the shop, and I also make deliveries in the truck every now and then, and my wife is primarily book keeper, but we have relationships with all of our employees and that’s been very fulfilling… There’s been a lot of landmark and historical places (like the courthouses in Alpena, Baldwin, and in Grand Traverse county) we’ve got involved with work, so I think we’ve made our mark.”
