Wayne Guthrie and I came back from a week in Japan earlier this month with a greater appreciation of why we must understand the unique needs of all customers – especially in international markets – so we can better meet them.

Here just a couple of examples from my visit:

I toured Wing’s Chiba plant, the largest 2x4 component plant in Japan, and was impressed by the scale, the size and the precision that goes into designing homes, factory-cutting precision structural components, packaging them up in shrink-wrap and delivering them to a building site ready for assembly is remarkable.

Canfor has an exclusive relationship with Wing, largely because we provide the specific wood products they need for their operations, and we do it reliably and efficiently.

The same is true for Sekisui Heim. It’s the sixth-largest house builder in Japan, and its name is synonymous for quality. Sekisui Heim has its own metric sizes in combination with 2x4s, and the specifications are very strict because the wood is used in combination with steel.

Senior representatives from these and other companies made it clear that Canfor would remain one of their top North American suppliers – as long as we continue to deliver the specific products required by their operations.

It was a message we heard time and again from many of the others we visited, including Royal Home Center, which is owned by Daiwa House Corporation and has 47 stores across Japan. We’re working with them to distribute our products, including new ones like PVC boards and oak veneer boards from Cambridge.

Other customers we were honoured to visit included Mitsui Home, Mitsubishi Estate Home Component, CI Wood and Polustec’s Techno Field.

Canfor maintains excellent relationships with these customers and many others in Japan and around the world because we never lose sight of the importance of quality and customer satisfaction. And we make sure we understand and respect their needs.