NEW YORK (MAY 3, 2022) – Mickey, an innovative startup company, announces the launch of its automated lumber marketplace. The Mickey Marketplace offers a variety of hardwood lumber sourced directly from NHLA-member producers harvesting logs from sustainable and renewable forest resources around the United States – giving more small and medium sized suppliers, as well as large forest product firms, access to sell their inventory directly online to purchasers. The Mickey Marketplace offers live, real-time inventories, with a no-hassle, automated fulfillment process and a complete, end-to-end purchasing solution. The Mickey Marketplace will handle the entire transaction from order placement and payment processing to shipment and delivery without any human touch.
Since 2019, Mickey has been focused on modernizing the antiquated day-to-day operations of North American natural resource suppliers– such as lumber sellers. Mickey’s core product, ‘Mickey OS’ is an Operating System that quickly automates and streamlines the most cumbersome elements of the business such as logistics, payment processing and real-time fulfillment.
The new marketplace offering represents the first time that lumber buyers can partake in the platform and current Mickey suppliers can access new buyers along with their core customers. The Mickey platform will continue to automate the marketing, payment, logistics, and shipment of orders.
“We kept hearing from suppliers that this was something they wanted as an additional lane for their e-commerce business,” said Alex Rabens, Co-founder and CEO of Mickey.
The Mickey Marketplace gives lumber buyers a new option to purchase the inventory they need – without having to go through a broker or middleman to complete the transaction. Now U.S. manufacturers, builders, and others have direct access to securing the lumber they need – and orders can be placed for delivery within 1-30 days depending on buyer demand and supplier availability. Expected delivery times will be around 1-5 days depending on buyer and supplier proximity, and currently Mickey can only ship within the continental United States.
At launch, buyers will be able to purchase full truck loads of kiln-dried hardwood, rough or S2S in Western Red Alder, White or Black Ash, Basswood, Beech, Yellow or White Birch, Cherry, Hard or Soft or Pacific Coast Maple, Red or White Oak, Walnut, Hickory, Sap Gum, Tupelo, Sycamore, Cottonwood. Inventory will include a variety of thicknesses from 3/4 to 16/4 and random widths and lengths.
“Until now, the hardwood lumber market relied on traditional and outdated buying and selling methods,” said Alex Meyers, Chief Operating Officer of Mickey. “We’re giving forest product suppliers access to a national liquid marketplace and ultimately the opportunity to sell at market prices without being undercut by middlemen and wholesalers.”
Suppliers, such as Wisconsin’s Tigerton Lumber Company are excited about the premise of taking their business online. “This is very exciting,” said Mike Schulke, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “This is exactly the direction the industry needs to go!”
Committed to a net-zero carbon future, Mickey’s marketplace will calculate the carbon intensity of each lumber purchase for its users in an effort to provide sustainability reporting for both parties – and eventually allow for forest product sellers to monetize the land they do not commercialize via carbon credits.