Around the holidays last year we shared with you the inspirational story of how our company began when my mother, Helen Hurst purchased a Sears Table Saw for my father Elvin back in 1958.  We love that story – and around the time we shared it with you we also sent it out to a few magazines.  We were thrilled when Woodshop News magazine reporter Jennifer Hicks called us to let us know they read the story and she was interested in coming for an interview and a shop tour.

Woodshop News

Woodshop News has been in print for 30 years. The publication is a favorite among woodshop owners and woodworkers with small to mid-sized woodshops, and has a readership of 70,000.  They cover news, business trends, advice and new products for professional woodworkers.  Their typical reader builds cabinetry, furniture, architectural millwork and remodeling projects.  Our own staff are Woodshop News readers, so we were thrilled to have them stop by for a tour of our facility last week and meet my parents, Elvin Jr and myself.

Jennifer spent a good deal of time with my parents, hearing stories from the early days of Kountry Kraft, and learning how we grew from a staff of 2 to nearly 100 in the past 50+ years.  It certainly wasn’t easy for my father to quit his job with a 14 month old and a 3 week old baby at home to launch our company.  The path from a 28’ x 58’ shop to our current 90,000 square foot shop wasn’t always smooth, but our commitment to the Germanic principles of practical hard work and our strong sales philosophy of giving people what they want so they will come back for more still guide every decision we make today.  Our path is a great example for other shops who start small with big dreams for the future.

I don’t want to scoop Jennifer and our friends at Woodshop News, but watch for a story in the May or June issue this year.  Visit woodshopnews.com for some great content for woodworkers, and consider a subscription to encourage the woodworker in your life – you never know what might become of it 🙂