Some businesses choose to look at niche trade markets, preferring to leave the "stock standard" lines to others.

One company that has adopted this philosophy with gusto is Kilkenny Lumber, based in the Melbourne suburb of Coolaroo.

Chris Parsons started Kilkenny Lumber back in 2004 and continues to go from strength to strength, today employing seven other staff.

However as Chris is in the "thirty something" age group, the first question asked during our interview was that of his own personal background and the reasons behind starting a timber business at such a ‘young’ age.

Chris explained he most certainly had the "sawdust in the veins" scenario, his grandfather having started H Parsons Timber & Hardware, Sydney Rd, North Coburg (an inner Melbourne suburb).

Chris’s father, Geoff, took over the business in the 1960’s and ran it until the late 1980’s when he decided to semi-retire. Sadly Geoff suffered a serious stroke some years later and has been unable to work since.

Chris left school at the end of 1990, and had begun working with his father at Parsons Timber & Hardware in 1991. But when his father’s health deteriorated, the pressure on the family became too great and the business ceased trading.

Chris continued his education in the timber industry over the coming years working for a number of milling, merchant and wholesale operations.

"I worked for companies like Lamcal Building Supplies, Tilling Timber and Simmonds Lumber, which gave me an enormous amount of experience in a number of sectors," he told TimberTrader News.

The family’s Parsons business had acquired the property at Coolaroo many years earlier, and Chris decided it was time to go back into their own business, setting up Kilkenny Lumber on the site.

"While our products are somewhat specialised, we’ve tried a number of products over the years - and will continue to do so," he stated.

■Chris Parsons from Kilkenny Lumber in the Melbourne suburb of Coolaroo offers specialised timbers and a patented prefabricated stair system called, Kwik Step.

He said Kilkenny Lumber is a diverse operation which services all aspects of the timber and hardware industry, offering window and joinery supplies and servicing other timber remanufacturing businesses.

"Our speciality products are outdoor timbers such as all types of decking, treated and untreated structural posts and beams, cypress pine posts and poles, with a strong emphasis on sawn and machined timber from South East Asia.

"The majority of our timber comes from sustainably managed forests and sawmills, which are either Australian Forestry Standard (AFS) or Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certified," he added.

Chris informed that the business today is very different to what it was when it first started; ". . . now we’re in a much more competitive market, we’ve gone to a more specialised area.

"We like to think of ourselves as a 'boutique’ wholesaler.

"Our main forte is our Merbau products, which we import ourselves. We bring in a lot packs of set length of Merbau decking and have a very good customer base for this product.

"Plus we bring in Merbau flooring, which competes against Jarrah in the marketplace, and we keep a full range of dressed boards and wide boards for stair material. I’d say we’d have the biggest range of Merbau products in Melbourne."

Another of the ‘boutique’ lines on offer from Kilkenny Lumber is its Kwik Step prefabricated stairs, which holds a registered design patent.

"Kwik Step has routered strings and is pre-drilled and screwed. Our stairs are fully trenched out from the back and treads are pre-drilled for easy assembly — all you need is a power drill.

"Kwik Step is suitable for both the builder and the DIY market, and is a great product for the merchant to carry. A builder can virtually buy it off the shelf and have it installed in next to no time."

Chris explained they can be manufactured anywhere from one tread to 17 treads, are available in Merbau or treated Pine and all the stock standard range is available in 900mm treads.

"From there we can do any width tread but we can’t change the rise as the material is already routered ready for use." Designed for external use, Kwik Step is supplied in flat packs and can be distributed Australia wide within 2-7 days.

"We started selling into New South Wales and are now making inroads into Victoria," he stated.

So will this boutique business expand back into the general lines of the wholesale supply business or continue to focus on specific lines?

Chris responded by saying; "We’re always looking for new ideas and new products, and are small enough to react quickly to market trends.

"Working in your own business is always challenging, and I like to challenge myself!"