Scandian Industries is a family-owned Brazilian forest products company whose beginning traces back to producing railroad ties and lumber for the Brazilian government in 1972.

Jayme Scandian, now retired, was the founder and president of the 35-year-old company. Under his leadership, Scandian flourished with manufacturing facilities for lumber, kiln sticks, plywood, solid flooring and engineered flooring. Having the foresight to recognize the company needed to sustain a long-term legal log supply, he built the raw materials infrastructure, which included logging operations and plantation forest management.

Paulo Scandian, Jayme’s brother, assumed leadership of the company and has continued his sibling’s growth philosophy. In illusatration, Paulo invested more than $25 million to build a new flooring production facility in Curitiba, Brazil, to manufacture a thick, top-ply engineered product.

As a result of this facility, Paulo made the decision to expand Scandian’s sales horizon to a global presence.

Fabio Scandian, Jayme’s son, was tapped to take the reins for North America and quickly gained market presence with the company’s plywood products. But given the expanding presence of exotics in the flooring arena, Fabio created a vision to introduce the Scandian Wood Floors brand of engineered and solid flooring to North America. His vision, which is now a mission, was for Scandian to become the No. 1 brand for exotic flooring in North America. The key elements of the mission include existing and future products, customer service, competitive presence and people, all focused on the building long-term customer satisfaction and loyalty.

When it came to products, a number of offerings were developed: They include:

• Solid 3/4 x 31/4- or 5-inch Prefinished Exotic Species with 10 options.
• Bacana Collection, an entry-level engineered, 3/8 x 31/4- or 51/2-inch with 10 options in each width.
• Bonita Collection, a premium line featuring Solitec construction available in two thicknesses: 3/8 x 3-inch with 2.5mm top layer and 1/2 x 31/4- or 5-inch with eight selections in each width.

Along with having the right products, Fabio knew he needed to recruit a flooring team with the experience and knowledge necessary for national brand implementation. To lead the sales team, he recruited John Patterson as vice president of sales and marketing, North America. “Scandian Wood Floors was very fortunate to secure one of the best distribution networks in the nation,” Patterson said. This created a sales demand that far exceeded our wildest imagination. It forced us to expand capacity, think at a different level and speed to meet the demand.

“Once we understood the demand curve, our facility was adjusted to meet the demand. Today our growth in all three product categories is substantial and the future looks bright.”