About Us

When looking for a business partner, you want someone with high ethical standards and a proven record of experience to reflect that integrity. We at Northern Sheer Veneer have created a family of professionals with more than fifty years of honest business in manufacturing. At Northern Sheer Veneer we strive everyday to uphold the high business ethics that were established by Stan Davis over 60 years ago with his first business, St. Peter Creamery.

From Stan Davis and our management team, to our plant workers and everyone in-between, an effort to create an excellent product for the customer is our number one goal. This is why we provide a high quality, eco friendly product for our customers, who can then change our natural sheer veneer into a wide range of commercial or consumer ready goods.

At Northern Sheer Veneer we practice straight forward business, because we know that fast talking and cutting corners only adds to the difficulties of doing business in today’s market. Business can be hard, if it was easy everyone would be doing it. But because we at Northern Sheer Veneer are committed to our customers and their success, we will always be willing to work with customers to find solutions that will meet or exceed expectations. We know this proven dedication insures our customers satisfaction, alleviating the hardship of business one would find with other companies.

Stan Davis
Owner, Northern Sheer Veneer

About Stan Davis

Stan Davis was a butter maker from St. Peter, Minnesota. Being an individual of innovation and ambition he would transform himself into a leaders of the American Dairy Industry through hard work and perseverance. A leadership he has just been recognized for, by the NCCIA* in 2008. After taking the advise of his high school football coach to get into the dairy business Stan began apprenticing as a butter maker after high school. By 1943 Stan would buy St. Peter Creamery with two other partners, who shortly after pursued other interest, leaving Stan as the sole owner of the creamery. With the U.S. involved with the second world war, dairy goods became a scarce commodity, making Stan’s milk and butter for our troops that much more important: “I remember we sold 80% of our butter production to the Government”.

After the war, the dairy industry was drastically altered forcing many creameries to close their doors. Not being one to quit or be forced out of business, Stan Davis continued to work even harder to expand his vision of the family business and secure its future. Always the entrepreneur, Stan would spend nights and days at the Creamery trying to figure out a new or more efficient way of producing his dairy goods. He came to the conclusion that he should preserve the proteins found in his dairy byproducts, so it could be used in a variety of applications. In 1956 Stan installed his first dryer which gave him the ability to dehydrate his milk, successfully preserving and increasing the value of his dairy byproducts. By increasing the value of dairy goods others would have discarded as useless, Stan created a stronger and more profitable business for himself and his family. The success of his venture resulted in an expansion of the business, which meant buying into the Le Sueur Cheese Company in 1969 and Nicollet Foods a year later in 1970. By 1986 these three companies, with the help of Stan’s sons, merged into Davisco International. If asked, Stan would tell you that each expansion was done out of the basic need “to survive”. This need was not just for him and his immediate family but also for the thousands of employees that now work for Stan's family owned business and the customers they serve world wide.

The success of Stan’s business is attributed to his hands on experience, hard work, high ethical standards, quality product development and customer satisfaction. To some this may sound easy, but to millions of others these qualities in character are hard to find, especially in todays business world. Stan’s character and business ethics can be attributed to his small town origins and the fact that he has lived through some of the most trying times in Americas history. After facing a depression, several recessions and wars, it is no wonder that Stan Davis’ simple goal to survive has resulted in the forging of an indomitable spirit of perseverance and professional prosperity.

These enduring qualities of Stan Davis have been passed on to his sons and grandsons, who now run the family business since his retirement in 1989 from Davisco International. Thanks to their successful business leadership, Stan and his sons have been able to branch out of the dairy industry and apply their business wisdom, experience and success to the Stone surfacing industry with Cambria USA, where they once again set the precedence of quality and service in an industry with their fine quartz surfaces for bathrooms and kitchens. However, their entrepreneurial spirit does not end there. They have again branched out into the wood industry with our company Northern Sheer Veneer. Seeing a new innovative product, Stan Davis invested in the technology to create our veneer. When the opportunity was right, he bought the equipment outright and established Northern Sheer Veneer. For over 65 years Stan Davis and his family have been investing in America and the American worker by being innovative and true to the American Dream. “We have been a successful family business because we are honest and reliable, because of this we are able to grow regardless of the difficulties of the times and meet the demands of our customers around the world”.

*North Central Cheese Industries Associations