By Polly Mikula
Steve Malone, developer of the new Base Camp at Bear Mountain townhomes, says all his model homes are decorated by Pompanoosuc Mills furniture, (a.k.a. “Pompy”) based in Thetford, Vermont.
“It’s delux, Vermont-made furniture and a wonderful local company,” Malone said. “I’ve used Pompy for all of my model homes and many owners use them too… [many buyers] want to come in and have it turn-key, they don’t want to pick out every last detail. These guys simply do a great job.”
Pompanoosuc Mills, was founded 50 years ago in 1973 by Dwight Sargent. “It was the summer between my first and second year at Tucks school [of Business at Dartmouth College],” Sargent explained in a video posted on his website: Pompy.com. “It was just myself and one other employee who could work as needed, which was a great way because sometimes we had work and sometimes we didn’t.”
Recalling his early days, Sargent told the Burlington Freepress. “I saw a lot of trees, and I knew other people were making furniture in the Boston area. I thought I could do that. When you’re in your 20s, you think you can do a lot.”
Sargent began selling furniture out of his garage workshop — about 600 square feet — and took an ad out in a small local newspaper.
It worked. By the end of the 1970s his little company had grown to 30 employees.
In 1976, they opened their first showroom in Burlington and incorporated to become an s-corp.
Today the company has 9 showrooms, in Vermont (Burlington and Thetford), New Hampshire (Concord, Hanover and Nashua), Massachusetts (Natick), Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) and Connecticut (West Hartford) and a 75,000-square-foot production facility in Thetford, in addition to its 15,000-square-foot showroom there.
For more information, visit: Pompy.com.
