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V O L . X X X N O. X I X 56 Fact Book / Doing Business in Maine B U S I N E S S R E S O U R C E S B U S I N E S S R E S O U R C E S A Lewiston guitar maker is developing a boutique sawmill to produce finished parts for musical instruments, with a primary focus on red spruce. Bourgeois Guitars bought 43 and 51 North Lisbon Road in Lewiston for $1.2 million. e property con- sists of a 7,300-square-foot industrial building on three acres. "In addition to working with red spruce, we want to help cultivate market appetite for some of the incredibly beautiful, resonant and much more sustainable domestic tonewood species found in Maine's northern forests," says CEO Christopher Fleming. "It's imper- ative to both the health of our environ- ment and the future of our craft that we work proactively to develop alternatives to the traditional exotics that are so quickly diminishing in supply." Bourgeois origins e business was started by Dana Bourgeois in 1977, repairing and build- ing guitars in Brunswick. In 1992, the firm moved to a workshop in the Continental Mill in Lewiston. More recently, it's been at the Roy Hill Mill at 41 Canal St. in Lewiston, where about 20 employees build about 500 guitars a year. Prices range from $7,000 to, last year, two $100,000 guitars. A 2019 partnership with California- based Eastman Music Co. helped expand manufacturing, sourcing, and distribution capabilities. e partner- ship also allowed Bourgeois to develop a market for lower-cost instruments. Fleming took over as CEO earlier this year, freeing up Dana Bourgeois to focus on guitar design, product development and mentorship. Bourgeois introduced a number of innovations designed to enhance the instrument's tonal qualities, includ- ing the use of heat-treated "torrified" woods, which resist shrinkage and warping. e process also improves the wood's stiffness-to-weight ratio and enhances the sound. Another innovation was the rein- troduction of Adirondack spruce, also called red spruce, as a guitar-top tonewood. at eventually led to the company's current project to develop its own mill. "Tonewoods" are spe- cies that lend a tonal quality to an instrument. Local wood Most Bourgeois guitars are made with red spruce soundboards. For years, the company purchased those guitar tops from suppliers around the country. "Looking out of our workshop windows at stands of mature red spruce trees made us wonder, 'What would a local model look like?'" said Fleming. But with a production run in the hundreds and a break-even busi- ness model, Bourgeois didn't have the resources to develop its own mill and needed infrastructure "We've been a low-margin organiza- tion working for love of the craft since day one," says Fleming. "ough we had certainly thought about it, we sim- ply didn't have the bandwidth nor the economies of scale required to take on a project of this size. "But when we partnered with Eastman, I started thinking there was a real opportunity for vertical integration and, with it, far greater control over our supply chain." Eastman's guitar production runs in the tens of thousands. "e economics started to make sense," Fleming says. Forest network In recent years, Fleming said, he's focused on developing a network of landowners and forest professionals. e company's log buyer has been work- ing with local loggers, foresters and landowners in the northern forest to examine woodlots, identify trees suited to tonewood, explain the wood proper- ties that are most highly valued, and procure logs. In 2022, Fleming worked with Maine Manufacturing Extension Partnership to develop a manufacturing plan for a new campus that could accommodate Bourgeois' projected growth and allow for the incorporation of a tonewood mill. e search led to the property at 51 North Lisbon Road, which had a small sawmill, and the adjacent 43 North Lisbon Road, vacant land that could accommodate a new guitar factory. To support equipment acquisition for the mill, the firm received a four-year $500,000 forgivable loan through rive Maine, a program administered by the Finance Authority of Maine. Overall investment to get the mill up and running is expected to be about $2.5 million. e additional financing came from Eagle Bank in Massachusetts. A Livermore Falls engineering firm, Newfangled Solutions, developed custom equipment to break down logs into smaller parts that can be turned into finished guitar parts. "e benefits of sourcing and pro- cessing wood locally begin with greater control over the quality of our tonewood, from tree selection to final sanding and grading," says Fleming. "Additionally, because our local model reduces the overhead and transportation costs car- ried by outfits operating outside the red spruce growing regions, we can afford to pay a premium directly to local loggers and landowners." Built for music Red spruce displays the highest stiff- ness-to-weight ratio of any softwood, according to Fleming. "It's a very special tree which is uniquely built for music," he says "Being at once light and strong, it simply outshines the rest in terms of volume and clarity." e species grows in a finite region in eastern North America. "[But] for many years, you couldn't find red spruce or, if you could, the trees were too small for musical instrument makers," he says. Today, he contin- ued, red spruce happens to be one of the most abundant species in Maine's northern forests. "We've got this precious renewable resource and an industry that under- stands it," he says. "As a local tonewood manufacturer, we can offer our upstream partners a model that will provide the same amount of revenue at a fraction of the cost, all while preserving the resource. ere's nothing but upside here, from both an ecological and eco- nomic standpoint. is project is a really positive step for the forest products industry in Maine, from top to bottom." Laurie Schreiber, Mainebiz senior writer, can be reached at lschreiber @ mainebiz.biz Guitar maker stretches for a new note Bourgeois Guitars buys a sawmill as part of an effort to source the best wood B y L a u r i e S c h r e i b e r P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F BO U R G E O I S G U I TA R S P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F BO U R G E O I S G U I TA R S James Witkus, tapped as Dana Bourgeois's successor as master luthier, has just finished voicing a guitar back and is sanding the braces. Bourgeois Guitars employees turn out just over 500 guitars per year at their Lewiston workshop.