Coastland Wood Industries: Master of adaptation

Source: Exec Digital Canada

Date :07/12/2007 09:15:01

Coastal Wood Industries has found the key to success in the wood veneer market is to be agile and aggressive.

Written by Megan Santosus & Produced Kevin Patey

When people think of lumber, two characteristics that may not immediately leap to mind are adaptability and agility.

After all, the industry relies on mature trees — raw material that takes decades to grow and replenish. And while today’s modern sawmills are completely automated, the basic process of turning trees into lumber isn’t that far removed from when sawmills were powered by water.

One company that bucks the stereotype is Coastland Wood Industries, a manufacturer of wood veneers.

The Nanaimo, British Columbia-based company has survived — and thrived — by its ability to adapt in an industry that is at once dynamic and tradition-bound.

“While we have essential goals as to where we want to go, we are flexible about how we get there,” says Barry Simpson, Coastland Wood’s president and CEO.

Coastland Wood has demonstrated nimbleness throughout its history. Incorporated in 1987, Coastland Wood was founded as a private company and funded by Toronto-based investors.

From the outset, the company opted to be a non-union shop — a decision aimed to facilitate flexibility because no third-parties would be involved in management decisions.

In February 1988, with 60 employees, the company’s newly constructed mill in Nanaimo opened with single lines each for logs and veneer — very thin sheets of wood that are glued together to make a variety of products.

A log line cuts and processes full-length logs that are delivered to the mill via trucks or water booms, to blocks approximately 8 ½ feet long. The blocks are then sorted, with veneer-quality material going to the veneer line for manufacturing and unsuitable blocks are chipped and sold for pulp manufacture.

To read the full article, click here