Welcome to the Value Added Wood Products Manufacturing homepage of North Carolina State University's Wood Products Extension.

Wood is nature's most renewable and versatile building and construction material. Wood is readily available, affordable, can be easily cut to size, profiled to a desired contour, and finished to provide a smooth surface. Wood has been used since antiquity, yet the warmth and beauty of finished wood products are still in high demand and command value.

At NC State University we are optimistic about the future of value added wood products companies in North Carolina. This web site explains our optimism.

We believe that a combination of manufacturing techniques, marketing skills, and the North American hardwood resource base affords opportunity to the energetic entrepreneur. Consumer fatigue with globalization is growing as low quality products flood the market. Coupled to that is the increasing desire to minimize environmental impact, buy local, go green, embrace sustainability, with the result that there will be an expanding market opportunity once the business cycle turns. This opportunity has elements of manufacturing, marketing, business, and sustainability, which you can explore further by clicking on the links to the left, and gain a better understanding of our optimism.