Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
CDA Wood Cuts Out Industry Niche with Strategic Pivot
April 11,
2023 by HFBusiness Staff in Business Strategy, Designer Weekly, Industry 
Three years ago, Coeur d’Alene (CDA) Wood was caught in a dire situation. Like many companies around the world, the pandemic threatened their entire operations along with skyrocketing lumber prices. The Idaho-based brand knew it had to navigate this turbulent period with a strategic pivot.
CDA Wood's story began when Chris Bartimioli, a respected builder, recognized the growing demand for aged and weathered wood products. He found that architects, designers and contractors were struggling to source wood for their clients, with concerns around the availability and integrity of reclaimed wood.
Bartimioli bet big on a better solution. After experimenting with sun tanning beds, he and his team developed a patented process to speed up natural aging that gives new wood the same beauty and character that would take Mother Nature decades to achieve in just a matter of minutes.
The brand exposes raw lumber to the elements with a special solution of sun, soil, water and wind to bring out the wood’s natural colors, replicating the same texture and feeling as reclaimed wood – without the use of harsh paints, stains or volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
Faced with an unprecedented set of circumstances in 2020, CDA Wood shifted its focus from trade distribution to a consumer-packaged product sold through nationwide retailers, effectively saving the business.
Major industry players like Home Depot had bought-in the year prior, signing on CDA Wood in 2019. Bartimioli and team strategically re-assessed all operations as well as reconfigured to improve efficiency given these unprecedented circumstances and surge in demand.
Today, the Idaho-based brand is scaling its business and revolutionizing the wood products market thanks to its pivot to retail. In the last 12 months CDA Wood has rolled out to every Home Depot in the United States. It’s also just signed contracts with Home Depot Mexico, as well as with Spreetail to buy-stock-ship on the big e-commerce platforms for online fulfillment. Since 2022, the company has been raising capital to support the scaling underway.
Thanks to CDA, wood can now be responsibly manufactured to better serve do-it-yourself consumers (a growing and influential market), contractors, architects, designers and every customer in between.