Est. 1963 — Jacksonville, Texas
Milestones
E.C. Arrington starts building pallets near Rusk, TX — one helper, one load a week
Eddie Arrington joins — second generation
Moves to present site south of Jacksonville
Adopts thin-kerf bandsaws — more yield per log
Kyle Arrington joins — third generation
All three Baker Tri-Scragg Sawmills redesigned and modernized
Cut-up department overhauled — integrated end-to-end lines for efficiency and lower operational costs
Boiler installed to convert sawdust into heat for kiln drying and facility operations
4 sawmills. Thousands of pallets a day. Same name on the building.
In 1963, E.C. Arrington started building pallets at a rented facility near Rusk, Texas. Him and one helper. Lumber cut by hand. Pallets nailed together one at a time. At the end of a good week, they had a single truckload to show for it.
That’s the whole origin story. No venture capital. No inherited empire. A local banker took a chance on him, financed some used equipment, and E.C. turned one load into two, then three, then more. Output grew. Workers were hired. Facilities expanded.
In 1972, Eddie joined his father and began pushing the operation forward. Pallets were built at three different locations until the company moved to its present site just south of Jacksonville in 1975. Through the 1980s, production climbed steadily to 10–12 loads a week.
Then came the decision to invest heavily — a decade-long upgrade that ultimately brought capacity to 12,000+ pallets per day on a single-shift schedule. In the early 1990s, thin-kerf bandsaws replaced the old gang saw lines. The thinner blade saved enough material per cut to squeeze an extra board from the same log. The Arringtons adopted them quickly.
In 2004, Eddie was joined by his son Kyle — the third generation. Under Kyle’s direction, the company has been a consistent early adopter: new technology, better systems, faster processes. Between 2016 and 2018, all three Baker Tri-Scragg Sawmills were upgraded and redesigned to increase speed and yield while lowering labor requirements.
In 2022, the company overhauled its cut-up department from the ground up — reconfiguring for end-to-end integrated lines that reduced operational costs and maximized output. The most significant operational change since the sawmill upgrades.
In 2026, the company installed a boiler to capture sawdust — a byproduct of every log milled — and convert it into heat for kiln drying and facility operations. One more step in building an operation that wastes as little as possible.
Today, Arrington Lumber & Pallet operates out of Jacksonville, Texas — within a one-day drive of Houston, San Antonio, Dallas/Ft. Worth, New Orleans, and Oklahoma City. Four sawmills. Thousands of pallets a day. Still family-owned.
More than sixty years in, the company is still improving. The name on the building is still Arrington. And the standard hasn’t moved.
“A local banker took a chance on him. E.C. turned one load into two, then three, then more.”
Leadership
Three generations deep. The team that runs this place has been here long enough to know what works — and what doesn’t.
Owner
With the company since 1972
Eddie joined the company alongside his father, E.C., and eventually stepped into the lead role himself. He brings decades of industry knowledge — the kind you only get from having done every job on the floor. While Eddie has stepped back from day-to-day operations, he remains a steady presence and a direct line to how this company was built.
President & CEO
With the company since 2004
Kyle came in after graduating from Texas A&M and spent his first years learning the operation from the ground up — mills, machines, trucks, customers. He’s been at the helm ever since, pushing the company forward on technology and process without losing sight of what made it worth running in the first place. Third generation. Not interested in being the last.
CFO
With the company since 2012
Brian returned to Jacksonville in 2012 and brought a broad financial background with him. He keeps the numbers straight and the operation honest — and has had a significant hand in building the internal systems and culture that let a company this size actually run well. The kind of CFO who shows up on the floor.
VP of Sales
With the company since 2014
Garrett came to us with a medical background — including time in the region’s busiest ER — and has since proven that the skills that make a great clinician make a great salesman: listen first, solve the actual problem, follow through. He’s also family — married into the Arrington side of things — which means he takes the reputation personally. That’s not a bad thing to have in a sales leader.
VP of Operations
With the company since 2021
Clint graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in Forestry before spending years in law enforcement with the State of Texas. He joined the company in 2021, and it turns out that running operations at a sawmill and pallet plant isn’t all that different from the work he did before — it takes discipline, sharp situational awareness, and the ability to stay calm when things get loud. He brings all of that, plus an actual understanding of the timber side of the business.
Our Values
We’ve been at this since 1963. We know what we stand for.
Values
The pallet industry has a reputation problem. Bait-and-switch specs. Mystery lumber. Deliveries that show up wrong and apologies that come late. We’ve watched it happen to too many customers before they found us. These aren’t mission-statement buzzwords — they’re the specific things we refuse to compromise on.
This sounds simple, but the pallet industry is full of shady players whose first loads come in built to spec, then slowly devolve into something cheaper to manufacture. We build every pallet exactly the same, every time.
Too often we visit potential customers and see “A grade” pallets built with #2 lumber and worse — wane, large knots, incorrect sizing, shoddy nails, poor nail placement. Our equipment is set up to minimize waste, and questionable boards are discarded. We use American-made nails and banding.
We operate our own trucks and trailers for exactly this reason, relying as little as possible on third parties. We work to solve our customers’ packaging challenges, whether that means a design change or a schedule change.
We don’t compromise on quality, but we are committed to offering it at a competitive price. Business relationships are symbiotic — our customers’ success is our success. We have no interest in gouging the people we depend on.
Above all else, we treat our customers fairly and with the respect we seek from them. We will never deal in shady arrangements. If something goes wrong, we own it and fix it. That’s not a policy — it’s how we were raised.
We’re not a call center, a form letter, or a middleman. If you want to talk to someone who actually runs the operation, we’re right here.
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