Meisner Says He Blew It.
By Ben Meisner
I made a mistake when I made the comment earlier today that suggested the value added industry, in spite of government subsidies, went broke. I asked who is left in the value added industry?
I received a call from John Brink, of Brink Forest Products. He read the piece and took exception and so he should have. For what ever reason I have never lumped Brink Forest products in with the failed efforts of Canadian Woodworks, Woodland Windows, or the failed effort with Ikea because Brink built his company without a single dime from any level of government . And yes, finger jointing is a “Value Added “business.
Brink started in 1975 with a thirty five grand loan and has built that company into one of the leading valued added finger jointing companies in Canada. He employs around 250 people.
He has done all that in spite of being worked over very hard by the three major players in the forest industry in this province.
It may sound bizarre, but here is Brink Forest Products being told that their wood supply is being cut off in Houston. The company that controls the forest tenure is cutting off the supply throwing 75 people out of work at a time when the area is awash with dead beetle trees.
Brink Forest Products has been successful in spite of the government, which continues to think that when the majors ask for forest tenure that they must lie done and quickly put their feet in the air. It may sound absurd, but Brink Forest Products biggest problem is, you guessed it, trying to get a fiber supply.
Brink gets mad when he talks about the problems in the industry, damn mad, “It’s all about supply and demand” he says, “but our mentality in the industry is to try and keep shoving 2x4’s up the butts of the Americans to a point where there is always an oversupply. If we cut down on the shipment of product across the border it wouldn’t be long before the demand would outstrip the supply and the price would go up. We have a last man standing mentality here and so we keep cutting, 24 hours a day hoping that when the dust settles we will be the only company left.”
The future Brink says lies in access to the raw materials and as long as it is effectively controlled by three majors companies in this province nothing will change. Those people wanting to start in the value added have had no support from government and government seems afraid to deal with the problems of forest tenure.
Brink concluded by saying “We have the best fiber in the world in this region, what’s wrong with the region being heavily involved in the forest industry? All we have to do is take advantage of it.”
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Posted by: Harbinger on October 11 2007 5:16 PM
He is right on the money as far as I am concerned.
BC Timber Sales was supposed to solve some of those problems of access I thought. However, as I understand it, his company is dependent on culls of substandard materials at sawmills. He cannot take full sized logs and process those. I also understand that Canfor is now in the same business and his traditional source has been reduced or is gone as a result.
So, we have someone who appears to be saying he has no problem selling his products and is slowing down not because of lack of market but lack of feedstock which is controlled by others.
The less the licensees produce, the less garbage there is and the less work companies such as Brink have. If that is how it works, or does not work, then how can it be fixed without Brink having to process the whole log?
Finally, what happens to the other "value added" companies such as pellets, ethanol, etc, which is based on the remnants of primary manufacturing of timber?
Really their "problem" seems to be considerably different than that of a Woodland Sash.