Meet the brother and sister team behind Atlantic Fine Woods, an urban sawmill in Decatur

Tucked down a long driveway off of Covington Highway sits the company Atlantic Fine Woods, an urban sawmill. It’s run by brother and sister Joe and Laura Sissoko. The siblings opened their business in 2012 and moved to Decatur about three years ago.

“When we first started our business, we are African immigrants who came into this country when [we were] 4 and 5 [years old],” says Laura Sissoko. “We saw an opportunity when Gibson Guitar company got raided for having illegally sourced wood, specifically illegally sourced ebony.”

Their company specializes in using urban harvested wood, which they get from working with local tree services where Joe will go their log yards and choose the high-quality wood.

“I’m looking how to maximize the amount of material and quality of material I can get out of the log structurally and for beauty characteristics,” says Joe who’s the company’s miller.

On a recent Friday afternoon, the “Closer Look” team headed out to Decatur to learn more in this next installment of our Closer Look Open for Business series, which profiles businesses with a unique story around the metro area.

Read more from Closer Look’s “Open for Business” series here.