Besse Forest Products Closes Three Veneer, Lumber Operations
Officials with Michigan-based Besse Forest Products recently announced the closure of three plants in Wisconsin that will result in more than 130 employees being laid off. The mills affected are Goodman Veneer and Lumber, Goodman, Wis., 48 employees and a sawmill that dates to 1909; Wisconsin Veneer and Plywood, Mattoon, Wis., 42 employees; Birchwood Manufacturing, Rice Lake, Wis., 46 employees.
The move comes after Besse Forest Products was sold to the Florida-based Hoffmann Family of Companies private equity firm in March 2024, and the company seeks to lower costs across its 10 newly acquired production facilities. Officials with Besse Forest Products said the closures were “due to an unprecedented industry downturn.”
Latest News
Housing Starts Show Modest Decline In September
U.S. housing starts dipped slightly in September to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.555 million, down 1.6% from August, but 7.4% above September 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development monthly…
Mellott Manufacturing Log Flare Butt Reducer
By customer request Mellott Manufacturing Co., Inc. is now offering the model 70E log flare butt reducer—designed and built with the same rugged quality as the LMR debarkers and all the Mellott product lines. Adding a log flare butt reducer to a mill infeed system will vastly reduce log handling problems…
Wood Fiber Group Merges With USNR
USNR and Wood Fiber Group have announced their merger. USNR is an industry-leading global supplier of sawmill and plywood mill machinery, aftermarket parts, and technical and engineering services. Wood Fiber Group is the largest supplier of cutting tools and filing room equipment to the wood products…
Industry Patriarch Varn Passes
George W. Varn, Sr., who broke into the family turpentine business following World War II, and then along with a cousin built a chip mill and a sawmill in the late 1960s in Hoboken, Ga., called Varn Wood Products, and who became one of the patriarchs of the southern pine lumber industry, died September 4 in St. Vincent’s Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla., the same hospital…
Find Us On Social
Newsletter
The monthly Timber Processing Industry Newsletter reaches over 4,000 mill owners and supervisors.
Subscribe/Renew
Timber Processing is delivered 10 times per year to subscribers who represent sawmill ownership, management and supervisory personnel and corporate executives. Subscriptions are FREE to qualified individuals.
Advertise
Complete the online form so we can direct you to the appropriate Sales Representative.