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2024 Large Business of the Year: Hammond Lumber Company

Hammond Lumber 

2024 Large Business of the Year

Community involvement is a core tenet of Hammond Lumber Company. From the very beginning, back in 1953, Skip Hammond had a simple philosophy: “Saw straight, talk straight and do more for the customer than the guy down the road would do.” That translated into instilling the importance of community engagement in their employees.

From that early beginning of a $50 loan and three employees, the Hammond family has grown their company into one of the most respected family-owned businesses in New England with branches all over Maine and now even in New Hampshire. With 22 locations, their trucks can be seen everywhere, and there are literally hundreds of independent contractors that they support with expert advice, referrals and so much more.

We often tout businesses like Hammond Lumber Company as ideal places for do-it-yourselfers, and with their in-store showrooms they certainly do help many families every year renovate their homes. However, the network of local contractors and suppliers they work with has a huge impact on homebuilding and business expansion in Maine. Hammond Lumber Company has literally helped build Maine into what it is.

Jason Gagnon, vice president of operations for the southern region who runs the Brunswick office, describes a bit of how the company puts policy behind their tenets to teamwork. During our award interview, he shared the following:

“Teamwork is very important. I have always felt that listening and allowing the opportunity to express ideas, as well as the ability to participate, goes a long way. We have so many people that have great ideas and experiences (positive and negative) to share, and if we can learn from these experiences, it helps everyone grow. We have an employee engagement committee that meets pretty much every month to discuss ideas from employees from all 22 locations. These meetings are open to all employees, and we encourage people to share ideas to make this an even better place to work.”

That kind of active policy is one of the reasons why Hammond Lumber Company gets named as a Best Place to Work year after year. We see it locally, too, through so many community projects. Besides their employees volunteering at food banks, community kitchens, local fairs and school events, we see their impact doing things like building a Make-a-Wish playground and supporting the huge softball tournament held in Lewiston last fall to help raise funds following the shooting.

Lastly, no mention of Hammond Lumber is complete without mentioning how they have embraced the Midcoast Tree Festival. They always have one of the most creative tree spaces and they’ve been voted one of the Best of the Fest trees every single year of the event. They have a committee of nearly two dozen employees who work for months recruiting donations and building around a theme they choose. Contractors eagerly donate items to show thanks for the support they get from Hammond throughout the year, and those two dozen committee members go out for a group dinner on set-up night and bring spouses and friends to help set up. It is the embodiment of community engagement.

Congratulations to our 2024 Large Business of the Year, Hammond Lumber Company.

Hammond Lumber Company won the Bath-Brunswick Regional Chamber’s 2024 Large Business of the Year at the 2024 Annual Awards Dinner held on March 8, 2024 at St. John’s Community Center in Brunswick.  There is an accompanying video which premiered that evening and can be found on the Bath-Brunswick Regional Chamber’s YouTube channel.