Second venture of US-Canada partnership

The tower inside Bienville Lumber is constructed mostly of cross laminated timber. The control center is able to view many stages of the process of turning logs into lumber. (Submitted photo)

A tale of two sawmills shows lessons learned that helped with the startup of Bienville Lumber Co., the second endeavor of a partnership of Hunt Forest Products and Tolko Industries of Canada.

The partnership of the Ruston-based Hunt Forest Products and Vernon, British Columbia-based Tolko Industries began around 2016 with a decision on its first sawmill in Urania — LaSalle Lumber Co. — soon followed. Testing at that mill began in late 2018 and it became fully operational in 2019.

Richie LeBlanc, CEO and president of Hunt Forest Products, said in the Louisiana Forestry Association’s podcast Minding the Forest that there were a few minor hiccups in the startup of the LaSalle Lumber as the two companies worked out differences in culture. However, it wasn’t long before that mill began producing the lumber it projected.

At the time of a grand opening in May 2019, Hunt Forest Products co-owner and chairman of the board of directors Trott Hunt said Tolko and Hunt were a good match as both were family-owned companies.

“They’re great people,” Hunt said in 2019. “We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with them.”

Tolko Industries President and CEO Brad Thorlakson agreed with the Hunt patriarch as he addressed attendees of the grand opening of LaSalle Lumber.

“The Hunt family shares our values and commitment to safety, and we’re excited about what we can accomplish together,” said Thorlakson, the third generation of his family to lead the company.

Bienville Lumber, nestled at an old lumber mill site in the hamlet of Taylor, sits one mile from Interstate 20, within easy reach of a pathway to the North Texas markets of Dallas-Fort Worth.

LeBlanc said it wasn’t long after LaSalle Lumber was going strong that talks began to build a second state-of-the-art mill in North Louisiana.

Site Selection

“We really got serious in 2021,” LeBlanc said. “We knew a mill was sustainable in this area.”

Before the place was chosen for the $270 million state-of-the-art mill, LeBlanc said he wasn’t interested in the Taylor site at first. The former Kansas City Southern Railroad (KCS) tracks ran along the north side of the property and the old mill that operated at this site had incidents that made it unattractive ... at first.

Hundreds of trucks were expected to enter and leave the mill every day. Also a steady flow of daily rail traffic — a train passes as many times as every half hour. That poses a safety concern.

Then an opportunity for that site came that would allow trucks to enter without crossing the railroad tracks. That satisfied LeBlanc’s concerns.

The new mill is capable of producing 400 million board feet of lumber each year. Even before it gets up to full capacity, 160 to 180 log trucks bring loads to the mill each day, which is only part of the heavy trafficked area.

“There are 275 trucks entering and leaving this mill every day,” LeBlanc said. “There’s a lot of traffic.”

“When we knew we could get the trucks to enter on the south side of the railroad, I said OK.”

The railroad tracks adjacent to the mill, however, are also part of the attraction, he said. Easy access to the Interstate is great, but the potential to tap into the railroad was a huge plus.

But it wasn’t easy.

After much negotiation, Bienville Lumber and KCS were ready to sign a deal, but moments before pen was to be put to paper, Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) had purchased the KCS, forming the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway, a subsidiary of CPR, and negotiations had to begin all over again.

Lessons Learned

Building open-sided covering for finished product sounded good when plans were being made at LaSalle. For practical purposes, however, covered and walled storage is better. The warehouse at Bienville Lumber can hold about 12 million to 13 million board feet of finished lumber.

“Typically, we average about 7 million board feet (in the warehouse),” Mill Manager Scott Walker said. “We don’t sit on it long.”

The first thing built, however, was the spare parts warehouse, LeBlanc said. The importance of having spare parts available, and which parts should be on hand on a regular basis, was a big lesson learned during the startup of its first mill. Planning for some parts that are more expensive also had to be worked into the mix.

Even before then, however, LeBlanc said the company needed a mill manager on site at the start of construction. So in June 2022, Walker was hired, making the move from plant superintendent at LaSalle Lumber.

“I told him, you probably aren’t going to make it,” LeBlanc said, halfway poking fun.

“That’s true,” Walker responded with a bit of a chuckle, who has been in the lumber business for about 25 years.

Walker split time between the Taylor and Urania sites at first.

Labor, Labor, Labor

“The top three challenges here are labor, labor and labor,” Walker said.

Fortunately, Walker said he has been able to find people he has worked with in the past who have a proven record of being good, hardworking folks. One is Joyce Hassen, who is in charge of quality control.

“This is a great place to work,” Hassen said. “It’s very safe; we make sure of that.”

One misconception Walker has to overcome in seeking new employees, however, is that many people still have the idea that to work at a lumber mill means difficult labor. It isn’t like that, he said.

“This isn’t the physical labor like it was 20 or 30 years ago,” Walker said.

And with 185 workers needed when the mill is at full capacity, Hunt Forest Products has to make sure the company forms relationships with area high schools and technical colleges whenever possible, Leblanc said.

Many of the positions, LeBlanc said, actually are not directly responsible for making the products. Most of the employees are in maintenance or moving the lumber from its finishing stage to the kilns to the warehouse and onto trailers that haul it wherever it is needed.

And lumber mill employment means good-paying jobs with stable schedules for Louisiana’s rural area. In Bienville Parish, the new mill contributes $14.5 million in annual salaries to the local economy.

As of January, Bienville Lumber was at its capacity of 185 workers and was on average to produce 330 million board feet of lumber this year. LeBlanc said that is where the mill was targeted to be at this stage.

Looking as a second successful endeavor of the Hunt-Tolko partnership, LeBlanc said they are “always open to an opportunity” in the future.