IDAHO TIMBER Provides Spruce, Fir, Cedar and Pine—“Just-In-Time”
By Terry Miller
An aerial view of Idaho Timber’s Henderson, N.C., facility.
Boise, Idaho—Idaho Timber is a nationally recognized leader in the forest products industry providing an extensive range of quality wood products to markets across North America and the Pacific Rim.Based in Boise, Idaho, this 33+ year old organization has a “one-shift” shipping capacity of approximately 70 million board feet of Ponderosa Pine, Douglas Fir, White Fir, Spruce, Southern Yellow Pine and Cedar products by ship, rail and truck each month.
Emerging from the adversity of the 1970s, Idaho Timber has successfully combined business and resource management with productive manufacturing to ensure dependable service and quality. The firm’s manufacturing, distribution and sales facilities are strategically located throughout the United States.
When asked to what he attributed Idaho Timber’s continued success, Idaho Timber’s President and CEO, Ted Ellis offered, “We are in the business of combining service and quality of lumber to get our customer the desired product. The Idaho Timber advantage is our commitment to sustainable forestry, balanced with the healthy growth of our company.Idaho Timber is well regarded within the industry as a low-cost provider of lumber products and has a leading marketshare in the United States,” Ellis continued “We have long-standing relationships with a diversified base of suppliers and customers.”
Idaho Timber has seven dimensional lumber remanufacturing facilities located in Boise, Idaho (shown here), Chadbourn, N.C., Fort Worth, Texas, Henderson, N.C., Lake City, Fla., and Albuquerque, N.M.
“In 2012, our strategic initiatives to better align our company as a primary ‘just-in-time’ vendor for our customers, combined with our efforts to be the go-to outlet for our suppliers, are proving to be effort and time well spent,” stated Ellis. “As each business day goes by we develop, train and teach relationship-building techniques within the company.The reputation of Idaho Timber and employees, as a result of these efforts, has never been better. We achieve this balance through the efforts of our people—dedicated, knowledgeable, and experienced. Handling the complexities of timberland management, sawmills, manufacturing plants, regional distribution and sales takes a company with people at the center.”
Through its nine facilities located in the Northwest, Southwest, South Central and Southeastern United States, Idaho Timber remanufactures dimensional lumber and home centerboards. Idaho Timber, through primary manufacturing, produces 5/4” radius-edge decking and an array of specialized products, including split post and rail fencing products.
Idaho Timber has seven dimensional lumber remanufacturing facilities located in Boise, Idaho, Chadbourn, N.C., Fort Worth, Texas, Henderson, N.C., Lake City, Fla., and Albu-querque, N.M.Inclusive in their operations, the firm has one board remanufacturing facility located in Weiser, Idaho. This particular facility is located on 25 acres and has 128,000 square feet of manufacturing space with an annual shipping capacity of 60 million board feet. The Weiser operation produces 1”x4” to 1”x 12”, 4’ to 16’ boards and strips, clear hobby craft boards and common boards. Unique to Idaho Timber, this facility is a primary supplier to the Home Improvement industry in the U.S. and Australia.
Sagebrush sales in Albuquerque, N.M.
In addition, Idaho Timber operates a traditional sawmill in Carthage, Ark. Situated on nine acres with 126,000 square-feet under roof, the sawmill has annual shipping capacity of 60 million board feet.Radius-edge decking and export clears are produced here in 5/4”, and the mill is capable of producing 2”x4” and wider dimension lumber.
A split post and rail fencing facility is located in Troy, Idaho. Encompassing 18,000 square feet on ten acres for production, the operation has an annual shipping capacity of 600 truckloads. Idaho Timber’s newest location is in Chadbourn, N.C., and is situated on nine acres with 63,000 square-feet of manufacturing and storage space. The annual shipping capacity is 60 million board feet. This facility produces SPF and European Spruce, 2”x4” to 2”x12”, 8’ to 24’ studs and dimension lumber as well as 1”x4” to 1”x12” Ponderosa Pine, Engelmann Spruce and European Spruce boards, pattern stock, edge glued boards and other specialty products.
When asked about plans for future growth opportunities and initiatives, Ellis noted, “Management believes that substantial opportunities exist to increase revenue and profitability by focusing on the following three initiatives:
1)Leveraging customer base—Providing additional value-added services and products to our existing customer base.
Idaho Timber of Texas, Ft. Worth, Texas
2)Leveraging product base —Providing existing product offerings to new customers.
3)Geographic expansion—Extending our national footprint in areas where demand is strong and opportunistically acquiring underperforming operations in targeted building material and primary sawmilling segments.”
As for international markets, he commented, “Our market investigation outside the U.S. will continue, not only for sales opportunities but for supply opportunities in the area of value-added product distribution.We are beginning to see signs that the Chinese market has become balanced, and possibly saturated, by the global forest products industry, which has few options for sales. The changing dynamics have created enthusiasm for potential widespread improvement of our remanufacturing locations.”
As it relates to possible acquisitions, Ellis asserted, “We continue to pursue potential acquisition targets that fit within parameters defined by the acquisition strategy and will continue to evaluate identified potential acquisitions.Over time we have evaluated dozens of businesses that have not met our acquisition criteria. Many had excessive debt, or were missing key business dynamics. The discipline and pursuit to successfully grow our business for the future will create interesting investigations and the best possible outcome.”
Idaho Timber of Florida, Lake City, Fla.
Idaho Timber is a member of Treated Wood Council, Idaho Forest Products Commission, North American Wholesale Lumber Association, American Wood Council and is SFI certified in several locations.
