🔒Former CNC Software CEO Summers channels woodworking passion into Manchester’s Parkerville Wood Products

When Mark Summers and his family sold Tolland-based CNC Software Inc. in 2021, it marked the culmination of a decades-long run building a global manufacturing software brand with about 180 employees and $65 million in annual revenue. Summers quickly decided to invest some of his entrepreneurial spirit, and cash, into a business closely aligned with his woodworking passion. In 2022, Summers bought a controlling stake in Manchester-based Parkerville Wood Products, a specialty lumber vendor and millwork shop. He had previously frequented the business over the years, purchasing materials for furniture and fixtures he built for family. Summers, 67, lives in Vernon, but also owns a barn in Tolland that he uses as his personal woodworking shop. He has kept a light touch on Parkerville, even as he’s reinvested profits into the business and financed property acquisitions to support its growth. “It’s a passion. It’s a neat investment,” Summers said. “I don’t let it suck me in to work here. I’m preserving my retirement, but stay connected at the same time.” Summers connected with Parkerville founder and President David Harris after mentioning to a mutual friend that he was interested in buying a woodworking business, given his passion for the craft. The friend asked if he had ever met Harris. He hadn’t — but soon would. “We got to talking and the next thing you know we agreed I would become his behind-the-scenes partner,” Summers said.

Tucked away, sought out

Tucked along a side road in a former paper mill complex that’s been converted into a commercial park, Parkerville isn’t the kind of business one just stumbles upon. Customers seek it out for its high-quality lumber in hard-to-find dimensions, and for dozens of exotic woods rarely found at big-box home improvement stores. At any given time, the shop carries 40 to 60 species of wood, including Padauk — a striking reddish-orange wood that’s moderately heavy, strong and stiff — and wenge, a dark, exceptionally hard wood. Both are imported from Africa. Parkerville will perform light shaping work on request. Those seeking more intricate cuts or patterns must place an order and return later. “People almost every day will drive over 100 miles to come to our shop, because there’s not really anybody that I know of that does what we do,” Harris said. “People who come in frequently say this is like kids in a candy store for people who love woodworking.” Parkerville, located at 580 Parker St., doesn’t stock framing lumber. Most customers use its wood for furniture, musical instruments, artwork, molding and other specialty projects.

Ideal partner

Harris said Summers has given him near-complete autonomy — along with strong financial support. Even before Summers finalized his buy-in to the Parkerville partnership, he financed a $240,000 purchase of inventory and equipment from The Woodery, a Massachusetts lumberyard that was closing. “He’s a super good guy,” Harris said. “He’ll usually say, ‘Whatever you decide is fine with me.’ He just kind of stays out of the way and does his own thing.” In early 2023, Summers paid $345,000 for a 7,500-square-foot, 1940s-era warehouse tucked in a largely residential Manchester neighborhood. Parkerville uses the space for overflow lumber storage and occasionally hosts weekend open-house sales there. Earlier this year, Summers spent $680,000 to acquire the roughly 20,000-square-foot light industrial building that has housed Parkerville Wood Products since 2006. The 1889-vintage structure sits on 3.6 acres and was once part of a paper mill complex. Harris said he’s planning to expand the main building by at least 4,000 square feet to accommodate growth. He’s working with designers to determine how much more can fit on the site, which borders a stream and faces wetlands constraints. Annual revenue rose to $4 million last year and is on track to reach $5 million by year’s end, Harris said. Summers describes his vision for Parkerville’s growth as “slow and steady.”

Similar passions, different paths

Harris, now 71, joined the U.S. Peace Corps in his early 20s. In 1977, he found himself running a wood shop at a university in Ghana’s second-largest city. It was a good time, he recalls. He visited 14 African countries and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. After returning to the U.S. in 1979, he embarked on a cross-country motorcycle trip to Colorado before settling back in Connecticut to start a woodworking business. “I came back, bought a skill saw and a pickup truck and just started working for myself,” Harris said. In 2003, he sold Harris Woodworking but agreed to stay on to run the business. Like Parkerville, the company specialized in high-end woodworking and lumber sales. Two years later, he bought back the lumber sales portion of the business. In 2006, he launched Parkerville Wood Products at its current location. When Harris Woodworking closed in 2008, Parkerville expanded to fill much of the same niche. The company buys its lumber from wholesalers, as well as from companies and individuals looking to part with long-held stockpiles — valuable collections often tucked away for projects that never materialized. Harris and his team recently spent a month unloading a tightly packed barn in Vermont. As of late October, Harris was awaiting DNA test results to identify a Florida wood collection he may purchase for $50,000 to $60,000. About half of Parkerville’s revenue comes from its millwork operations, which supply high-end furnishings and decorative architectural products to casinos, hospitals and corporate offices. The company has also served Ivy League clients — it crafted a circular information desk for Yale University’s Center for British Art and restored dozens of white oak shutters used to protect artwork. Some of Parkerville’s work ends up in the homes of billionaires, while other pieces serve practical purposes — like the precisely carved wooden blocks it supplies to Farmington-based Otis to keep elevator cables separated. For now, Harris sees the company’s greatest growth potential in lumber sales. Parkerville is already operating near capacity in its millwork division, he said, as skilled designers, project managers and craftsmen are increasingly hard to find. “I reviewed 30 resumes a day before yesterday for a project manager and estimator, and literally not one of them was somebody I wanted to call in for an interview,” Harris said. “Trying to hire skilled people for the architectural millwork side is really difficult.”