Knockout Firewood

Knockout Firewood never set out to become the company it is today. There was no grand business plan, no corporate launch, and certainly no expectation that one day we would serve thousands of customers across East Tennessee.

It started with a handshake.

Before Knockout Firewood, Knockout was a lawn care company. Like a lot of small businesses in East Tennessee, winter meant finding a way to keep working and keep the bills paid. So when the grass stopped growing, owner Kyle turned to something familiar: firewood.

One October day, while Kyle was in his backyard splitting wood, a stranger walked up. His name was Roy, and he operated the concessions at Elkmont Campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Roy had been bringing in firewood from North Carolina, but his supply had become hit or miss. He wanted something more dependable. More local. And importantly, he wanted someone with roots and heritage connected to the Smokies.

That afternoon, two strangers shook hands on a deal.

Neither of them could have known just how important that handshake would become. Roy became more than one of Knockout Firewood's first major customers. He became a pillar in the foundation of the company and helped pave the path for what Knockout would eventually become.

Nearly eight years later, a business that once made firewood simply to get through the winter now serves approximately 3,500 customers annually—and, on average, about 65% of them are returning customers.

That is the part of our story we are proudest of.

Our customers have grown with us. What began with neighborly firewood deliveries and checking in to make sure someone had enough wood for the cold has expanded into residential delivery, vacation rentals, property managers, retailers, campgrounds, wholesale accounts and corporate supply.

The scale has changed. The way we believe people should be treated has not.

We have never tried to build Knockout by being the cheapest firewood company or the biggest name in the room. We built it by focusing on the things we could control: the quality of our product, the professionalism of our service, doing what we say we are going to do, and treating a handshake like it still means something.

Today, Knockout Firewood provides kiln-dried, certified heat-treated firewood throughout the Great Smoky Mountains and surrounding East Tennessee communities. We've invested in better equipment, better processes and the ability to serve customers at a much larger scale, but growth has never been an excuse to lose the personal service that got us here.

Much of our growth still happens the same way it always has: someone who trusts Knockout tells someone else to call us.

From a neighbor who needs firewood for the winter to a company depending on us to keep its locations supplied, every relationship matters. Because behind every order is a person who has trusted us to do our job well.

Knockout Firewood started with two strangers and one handshake.

We haven't forgotten what that handshake meant.