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TruServ Settles With SEC

TruServ Corp. and a former executive have settled federal charges that the company overstated profits in the late 1990s.

In early March, the Securities and Exchange Commission reported that the Chicago-based hardware cooperative and its former chief financial officer, Kerry Kirby, agreed to settle charges that they failed to maintain accurate records and misrepresented financial reports.

The SEC noted that the cooperative discovered the problems in early 2000 and began steps to rectify the situation.

The company stressed that it has made changes in its internal auditing procedures.

"Initiatives have been implemented and will continue to be implemented by the board and by our management team," said TruServ chief executive Pamela Forbes Lieberman. "TruServ is a better company today."

The SEC's report states that TruServ understated expenses and overstated net income in 1998 and 1999. The report further alleges that Kirby knew about the inaccuracies. but did nothing.

In a separate complaint against Kirby, the SEC wrote, "His role as c.f.o. places him in the position to remedy TruServ's problems, and he failed to do so."

As part of the settlement, TruServ will hire a director of internal audit and a public accounting firm, in addition to filing SEC annual reports on its audits and internal controls.

Western Mills Think Small

Western sawmillers met in Montana last month to discuss ways to survive, and thrive, in the new market of small diameter wood.

The March l1 conference, sponsored by the Department of Agriculture's Resource Conservation and Development Division, examined how wood manufacturers could benefit fiom President Bush's recent forest thinning proposals.

Many expect that the new emphasis on thinning near populated rural areas will produce an abundance of small diameter trees.

One of the speakers, Chris Parmenter, owner, Stillwater Forest Products, Kalispell, Mt., showed how a mill can live off what another considers waste. Stillwater makes fingerjointed studs out of the best pieces of low-grade lumber bought from other companies.

Parmenter noted that when his business started in the 1980s, the industry didn't recognize the value of small trees. "It's a joke in our family now, all the studs we tumed into chips over the years," he said.

Another sawmill success story is Riley Creek Lumber, Plummer, Id., which started in 1998 with no wood supplies from national forests.

Although the mill benefited from help from the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, it was the establishment of a profitable cogeneration facility that produces electricity as well as a change in thinking that kept the mill afloat, according to mgr. Alan Harper.

"A lot of it was education-getting contractors and landowners to recognize that there's value in a 4" log," added Harper.

Various other speakers concurred that small generation plants fueled by timber slash and biomass may be the key to keeping Western sawmills viable as they transition to small diameter timber.

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