CUSTOMER| A SALUTE TO AN CUSTOMER |
KNAEBLE TIMBER, INC.
|
Founded under a different name by Kevin’s father Alan Knaeble and two partners, the company has grown from humble roots to one of the most well-respected logging companies in the state. Alan bought out his partners in the early ‘80s and changed the company name to Knaeble Timber when he took Kevin on as partner in the early ‘90s. Kevin and Khris took over the reins of the company in 1998. Though retired, Alan still enjoys working part-time for the company. “We have a long history in the logging business,” Kevin explained. “My grandfather and great-grandfather were loggers back in the ‘30s and ‘40s. Dad decided to get into the Operator Ron Hill uses a Komatsu PC220LC-7 excavator with a Lim-mit LM2100 delimber
attachment to remove limbs from cut trees. “They’re topnotch machines,” Knaeble Timber
co-owner Kevin Knaeble said of the Komatsu excavators. “We especially like the smoothness
in the hydraulics and the fuel efficiency.” |
business in the early ‘70s. I worked for him doing just about every job there is in the logging industry. I started out running a power saw, cutting limbs off trees. I’ve driven dump trucks and every piece of machinery there is. I can’t think of doing anything else. Logging is such a great industry. “I think within the logging industry as a whole, we have a very good reputation. We maintain a good operation right down the line. I’d hope we’re in the top five in the state as far as being good loggers. If someone went to a state or county office and asked for a reference on Knaeble Timber, I’d hope that our company would be near number one in the industry. I think it probably would be.” Large coverage area The company is based in Northome, Minn., with satellite sites around the Big Falls area. The satellite sites serve as holding areas for logs that mills aren’t immediately ready to take. The company covers a large part of northeast Minnesota, as far south as the Mille Lacs area to International Falls on the Canadian border. “We don’t go out of state, but we cover a large portion of Minnesota,” Khris noted. “We’ll go just about wherever the mills want us to go cut wood. It’s a good-size area.” Kevin handles day-to-day operations, including running machinery. Khris is the company’s office manager, handling paperwork, payroll, taxes and a variety of other duties. Together, the couple has increased the company’s business since taking over. “We’ve more than doubled in size since 1998,” Kevin remarked. “In this business, that can be hard to do, but we decided we needed to. So we bought quite a few trucks and some new pieces of equipment and started growing. |
The Knaeble name is well-known to people
involved in the thriving forestry industry in
northern Minnesota. After all, three generations
of the Knaeble family have been in the logging
business for 70 years in the area. Today, Knaeble
Timber, Inc.’s co-owners Kevin Knaeble and his
wife Khris believe the company’s excellent
reputation has vaulted it into the upper echelon
of Minnesota logging companies.
