How After 160 Years Steves Remains Committed to American Sourcing and Innovation
When you think of a 160-year-old company, you don’t automatically envision such things as self-driving trucks and robotic factories. Amid high interest rates, tariffs and labor shortages, you also don’t expect to hear about a 130-position expansion nationwide, or eight-digit investments into new plants. But that’s exactly what door manufacturer Steves & Sons is up to in 2026. Meanwhile, the company’s commitment to the Build America, Buy America (BABA) Act exceeds the requirement for 55% domestic content. Between 75% and 85% of the company’s content is from the United States.
[DWM] recently interviewed Steves’ president, Doug Gartner, and chief operating officer, Scott Lovett, to discuss the company’s culture of innovation and how it manages to keep the American dream alive six generations into leadership.
[DWM]: When you hear 160 years and sixth generation, you don’t automatically think about innovation. Not the likes of automated trucks and robotics, at least. What’s kept this at the forefront for Steves and how do you make it a priority?
[Gartner]: I think as a 160-year-old business, being family-owned … We’re not reporting to shareholders; we’re reporting to owners of the company. Even in the slower market that we’re in now, they know it will turn and that [leads to] continued investment in the quality of the product and in the capabilities of our plants.
[Lovett]: [We’re] very concerned about being complacent. They have to fight against [it]… As for our automated trucks, we now have four routes that we run in Texas, and we’re looking at developing another route that is multi-state. Now, there’s no one sitting there behind the wheel. Just like you see with [other self-driving] cars, there’s no one driving them.
[DWM]: That’s incredible. As a 160-year-old company, did that feel risky? Did it feel like you were kind of sticking your neck out a bit, in terms of being progressive?
[Lovett]: We vetted it well and wanted to be sure. With how it’s working, our customers don’t feel an impact. And that’s our main focus. The truck is picked up by a driver and taken to a yard. The self-driving truck then picks it up from the yard and takes it to another yard. Then a driver takes it to the customer. We wanted to make sure it did not impact the customer.
It’s in the infancy stages … but it’s about being part of that innovation and knowing and learning about it, rather than being told about it later. That’s where we want to be.
[DWM]: You’re adding 150 employees nationwide. How hard is that in the current climate, including labor shortages and added costs through tariffs?
[Gartner]: We know at some point, ideally in the very near future, things will turn. So, the thought of downsizing and the thought of laying people off is really not something we want to consider at this point.
[Lovett]: And these days you have automation to help with labor, but it’s mainly put in for quality purposes. We have done a lot to maintain our employees and to attract new employees. It’s the cultural shift that’s helped to attract them. Our biggest hiring is through referrals. People are proud to work here, and they’re telling their friends to work here. So, we continue hiring, and we want to deepen our bench, so to speak. The economy will turn. But if we wait for that to happen, we’re already late. We have to do it now.
[DWM]: Tell me a little bit about the door skins plant in Athens. I know you’re deploying robotics there, right? It sounds like you’re getting pretty high tech?
[Lovett]: It’s like buying a car and upgrading it. You add the add-ons and they get faster and smoother, or whatever. Similarly, we’re adding vision systems and AI processes, and other technologies on top of the proven technology that’s already there. [AI] is flattening the learning curve because it will take the data and help us to analyze and better understand it. We want to measure our [door] skins from the wood yard all the way to the customer, and how all of the different factors—including not just internal, but external factors, like weather and temperature—play in. For a human, that would be time-consuming and difficult, where AI will be able to help us better use the data.
[Gartner]: You used to watch science fiction movies and think that this was way distant in the future. Seeing it happen is really cool and understanding the possibilities of how it can help us with business, that’s the really cool part.
[DWM]: What about products? We think of door skins as something that doesn’t change, but are there things happening there—materials or things that are changing with the actual product?
[Lovett]: I think we’re going back to the quality of yesteryear. Over time, the product has been cheapened to save money and made thinner. We’re going back to what is substantial … We believe our skin will be the best. And we believe that for many reasons. Once again, it’s not always about the money. We’re in business to make money, but it’s about the value we can bring to our customers in a product that they’ll be proud to have on their shelves.
[DWM]: When it comes to sourcing domestic materials, surely there’s a less expensive shortcut that you could take. Tell me about that commitment. Is there a sacrifice for the company in making that choice?
[Gartner]: We’re a Texas-based company. Certainly, for the folks who live in Texas … they’re proud. And we’re proud as Americans … It is a choice, but I don’t know that it’s a sacrifice. Molded door skins are available non-domestically. The quality is okay. It’s not going to be as good as the quality we’ll have with our domestic production. [As for] pricing, we hope [for it] to be advantageous for us to own that manufacturing ourselves. But certainly, in the near term, there are opportunities that buying non-domestic would have—some advantages.
[Lovett]: We’re a family company. It’s the family pride and what they value. We aren’t reporting to stockholders that, at the end of the day, only value the bottom line. It’s all in what you value. The dollar is not always the value.
