TIBBETTS LUMBER CO. Chancey Road Groundbreaking
BY GARY S. HATRICK
Tibbetts Lumber Co. Zephyrhills plant will be the 12th location in the State of Florida.
Tibbetts Lumber Co. held a groundbreaking ceremony on Chancey Road in Zephyrhills May 13, with intentions to open a facility in the Fall of 2026. The Zephyrhills plant will be the 12th location for the company in the State of Florida.
Tibbetts lumber was founded in 1949 by Linton N. Tibbetts . It operated as Cox Lumber Co until 2006 when it was sold to Home Depot. In 2008. After fulfilling a two-year non-compete agreement, the leadership formed and started Tibbetts Lumber in 2009. It operates from the original plant location at the corner of SR54 and US41 in Lutz.
“We’re what they call a dealer,” said David Brown, Vice President for Market Development for Tibbetts Lumber Co., “So we buy wood from the mills, bring it into our location, repackage it, and send it to the professional builders. Most of the wood comes from the southeastern United States. All of the spruce pine product comes from the northeast or Canada.”
The Zephyrhills plant will operate on 29 acres of a total 44 acres located in the industrial corridor on Chancey Road. “The property has been in the Tibbetts family since the 90s,” Brown said. “We’ve been wanting to build this property for 20 years, but the timing has not been right. We’ve gotten to that point in growth -residential and home-building growth - that we’re looking forward to supplementing our company with the Zephyrhills location.”
The company will create a significant number of jobs, Brown said. “This location when fully staffed will employ between 125 and 200 employees, depending on volume growth in that market. We’ll start small, probably somewhere around 100 employees and as business picks up, we’ll continue to add to it.”
Once established, Tibbetts Lumber plans to get involved in the community, such as joining the business community through the Chamber of Commerce and seeking to help out the local non-profit organizations, Brown said.
Although Tibbetts Lumber Company is growing larger, they still have the practical working of local business.
“One of the things we pride ourselves on is that we are a family-run company controlled locally by ownership and leadership, so we’re very nimble in our decision-making process,” Brown said.
“We don’t have a corporate structure and stockholders above us that guide how we run our business. If there is something we want to do, the owner is literally a phone call away, and we can make decisions and adjust very rapidly.”
According to the company website: Tibbetts Lumber’s mission is uniquely simple, powerful, and intentional – To glorify God and honor the legacy of Linton and Polly Tibbetts while growing knowledgeable, dedicated employees while serving our customers with excellence and integrity.
To learn more, or to apply for a job, visit tibbettslumber.com
