Lake Country Woodworkers History

Lake Country Woodworkers is a woman owned
and operated office furniture manufacturer located
in the beautiful hills of Naples, New York. In 1994,
Donna Fargo and Karen Wood of nearby Canandaigua,
New York purchased the business from Don Dean, who
began the company operating out of a barn in 1976.

The two women were long time business associates
looking for new horizons and were enticed by the
prospect of continuing the tradition of a local
manufacturing company.

Lake Country Woodworkers is the second of two woodworking companies started by Don Dean, a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology's School for the American Craftsman. As a one-man shop, he offered custom design and built furniture for commercial and residential use. With the addition of new commercial customers and employees, he quickly outgrew the barn location and acquired the old Widmer Winery building that now houses the operation.

Donna and Karen acquired excellent, committed, creative and loyal employees who have
now been with the company for many years, and makes Lake Country Woodworkers
what it is today.

The women also instituted a number of systems, which have primarily been directed at
making Lake Country Woodworkers a customer driven organization. Shifting demands
from large project based, multiple productions, to "one office at a time" orders, has
meant conceptual and cultural changes for the organization.

To meet this challenge new equipment was purchased, and a system was created with an
elasticity to mold itself week by week to the needs of customers both inside and outside
the organization.

A yearlong training in Continuous Improvement involving everyone in the organization
has given Lake Country Woodworkers a self-starting approach to collaborative efforts
at any point in a process.

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