Redwood plywood fills market need

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exaggerated according to Pete Reyneke, the sales manager of the plywood division of Miller Redwood Co., Merlin, Or.

"Our company," Reyneke says, "has made a strong push over the past year to make sure our redwood plywood products were available, and that builders, architects and distributors know about it. And now we're beginning to see the results."

Back in 1980, the company found itself in something of a Catch 22 situation. Redwood plywood wuts synonymous with Simpson Trmber, and to some degree, Pacific Lumber Co., who together were producing about 60 million feet of 3/8 " redwood plywood annually. In comparison Miller Redwood was something of a specialty producer, offering a higher quality panel in terms of veneer grade and bond performance.

Reyneke says, "we had a nice group of customers who refused to use anything but Miller Redwood Plywood. And they bought all we could produce."

ln 1979 Pacific Lumber Co. made the decision to halt production of redwood plywood, and in 1980, Simpson followed suit. Miller Redwood found the market all to itself. For a while, Reyneke says, Miller Redwood was doing all it could just to meet the demand for redwood plywood-it was difflrcult to get enough ven@r from its Crescent City, Ca., mill. "Not because it wasn't available," he says, "but because so much of Miller Redwood's timberlands consist of oldgrowth redwood, and many of the logs were too big to get on the veneer lathes."

For two years, Miller Redwood

Story at a Glance

Redwood plywood still available and in demand...supply faltered when big companies stopped manuf acturing it. .speciality producer takes over, develops marketing program, gets good response.

sold all the redwood plywood it could make, and at the same time invested in new equipment to substantially increase the amount of veneer it could produce. But once they were in position to make all the redwood plywood the market could buy, demand began to slacken.

"In late 1982," Reyneke says, "we realized just how much Simpson and Pacific Lumber were creating a market for our product. With them out of the picture, potential customers for our product began to think that no one was making redwood plywood anymore.tt

In mid-1983, Miller Redwood launched an aggressive marketing campaign directed at distributors, builders and architects to tell them that redwood plywood was indeed still available. "We found out pretty quickly how much demand for the product was still out there," Reyneke says. "We have had very good response. It's a product people still want,"

Why redwood plywood? It is a very good siding product, says Reyneke. It

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WWPA Opens London Office

Western lumber products are being promoted in Europe from a new office established by Robert Kincaid, the frst Southern Forest Products/Western Wood Products Associatiori U.K. technical softwood representative, at 4th floor, 69 Wigmore St., London WIH 9lG, England.

The market development progr:rm is a cooperative venture of WWPA, SFPA and the Foreign Agriculture Service. Emphasis will be on promoting structural dimension lumber (MSR and visual stress grades) to the growing timber frame market which is nearing 25s/o of Britain's housing starts.

O&E: Wholesale Market Analysis

The North American Wholesale Lumber Association Observation & Expectation Report, a wholesale market analysis of the previous 45 day period as well as the coming 45 day period, is available to both members and nonmembers.

Compiled from the results of over 100 telephone interviews with NAWLA wholesalers, the information includes receivables, shipments, bookings, business indexes for both direct shipment sales andlor distribution yard sales and billings and distribution yard inventory levels in day sales. Percentage statistics are used to show both national and regional market trends.

Free to members, non-members may subscribe for $4O a year by contacting the NAWLA office,. 234f S. Arlington Heights Rd., Suite 680, Arlington Heights, Il. 60005.