While at Tuck, Dwight Sargent aspired to a job in railroads as a way to combine his love of trains with his desire "to be important." But he wasn't so keen on living where railroads are managed, namely, a big city outside New England. So what to do?
After his first year at Tuck, Sargent noticed an ad in The Boston Globe for custom-built furniture. In fact, he had learned enough carpentry and woodworking skills from his publisher father to remodel an unused sawmill into comfortable living quarters while a Dartmouth undergraduate. "I know how to build furniture," he thought, "and there are lots of trees here." So with $2,000 borrowed from his father, he was in the furniture business by end of summer break. Then each day after his second-year classes, he went home and made furniture. Thus Pompanoosuc Mills was born.
Today Sargent designs elegantly simple, custom furniture that is sold to customers from catalogs and from showrooms along the East Coast. His company, located in East Thetford, Vermont, is now the largest build-to-order furniture company in Vermont—a state rife with world-class furniture makers. It has grown from 1.5 employees (Sargent and his Dartmouth roommate helping out in lieu of a real job) to 167 plant workers and salespeople, some of whom have been with the company for more than 25 years. In the spring of 2006, construction began on a $2.2 million expansion of his plant that will increase production space and, if things go as planned, sales as well. "We're an $18 million company that will soon become a $25 to $30 million company," says Sargent.
Products—from chaises to lamps to corner cupboards—are delivered by a fleet of company-owned trucks to 11 company-owned retail stores in major markets like New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston. A 12th store will open shortly in Washington's tony Georgetown section, and orders from Florida and California are on the rise. Lately Pompanoosuc's stylish website has become the primary source of growth, offering all product lines in hundreds of configurations and woods. "I don't know how others think of me," he says, "but I think of myself as a retailer."
When he's not tending the register and dusting the inventory, Sargent raises all-natural Black Angus beef cattle on his 400-acre farm in Norwich, Vermont, for customers as far away as Washington and Oregon. He serves on the board of ACORN, a local organization that provides resources for people living with HIV/AIDS, and on another board that advises the Federal reserve in Boston on the pulse of the regional economy.
Someone, obviously thinking of sawdust and dovetail joints, once said it was a shame that Sargent never used his Tuck education. "That really bugged me," he says, "because I use my Tuck education every day." It was Tuck that taught him about organizational behavior and the importance of customer satisfaction. At Pompanoosuc, this means controlling the product from start to finish, adding products (media cabinets and lower beds, for example) that customers suggest—and minding the competition. "Competition from Asia is our ultimate challenge, and they're getting stronger all the time," he says. "We differentiate ourselves by design, customization, and quick turnaround. Our sales staff now knows the answer to customer requests, and it's always 'Yes!'"
This business model, he says, will keep his workforce challenged and engaged and his company strong in the face of growing global competition. Happy workers. Satisfied customers. Not a bad way to run a railroad.
