G-P Completes Distribution Sale

Georgia-Pacific Corp., Atlanta, Ga., has completed the sale of its building products distribution unit to BlueLinx Corp., a new company owned by former G-P executives and New York-based investment firm Cerberus Capital Management L.P.

The transaction, valued at roughly $810 million, was finalized May l0 (see April, p. 38).

Also based in Atlanta. Bluelinx operates sales and service centers in Atlanta and Denver, Co.; 63 warehouses in the U.S. and one in Canada totaling 20 million sq. ft. of storage space, and more than 900 trucks and trailers.

"We are a new company, with a new name and ownership, but the things that are important to customers and suppliers haven't changed," said Chuck McElrea. c.e.o. of Bluelinx and former president of building products distribution for G-P.

The firm distributes nationwide more than 10,000 building products in 14 categories from more than 1,600 suppliers. It has a six-year pact to continue purchasing structural panels, lumber and other building products from G-P and will be the exclusive distributor for select Georgia-Pacificbranded products.

In the new company name, Blue refers to its familiar blue trucks, while Linx describes how it manages and connects the flow of products and information across the supply chain.

In separate transactions, G-P also sold its non-integrated pulp operations in Brunswick, Ga., and New Augusta, Ms., to Koch Cellulose LLC for $610 million and its interest in three Brazilian companies owning part of pulp company Aracruz Celulose for b /) mlllron.

Labor Strife At Retail Chain

A Teamsters union representing 144 workers at Parr Lumber. Ponland. Or., has raised a labor dispute with the company's c.e.o., Dave Hamill, over union membership requirements and risins health care costs.

The union has launched a $30,000 radio and billboard advertising campaign, accusing Parr of "takeaways." The billboards went up after a bargaining session in which Parr proposed that workers have more membership options rather than requiring them to join the Teamsters union. an option known as an "open shop" plan.

"This is expressly for our employees," Hamill commented. "They have a dissatisfaction with their union representation. We're not anti-union. We're proposing a choice."

Also discussed during the bargaining session was a new health care contract, which proposed union members share increasing health care premiums yet receive a 30-cent-an-hour pay increase in the contract's first year, and the choice ofjoining a union pension plan or contributing to a company 401(k) plan that is offered to nonunion workers. However, union leaders say the pay increase would fail to offset the proposed increase in worker health care premiums.

While no contract decisions have been finalized, the union did call off a planned demonstration at Parr Lumber stores, citing "significant progress" in recent negotiations.

Mill Reopens In Washington

Green Creek Wood Products LLC has reopened a Port Angeles, Wa., lumber mill that the prior Japan-based ownership had been shuttered five months earlier. The mill had previously been in business for 25 years.

The five-acre mill reopened May 5 as a joint venture of Green Crow Corp., Port Angeles, and Creekside Trading Corp., Langley, British Columbia.

Green Crow is owned by the Crow family, Randy Johnson and Dennis Yakovich.

Crash Claims Pilot's Life

An Australian helicopter pilot transporting logs for a division of Swanson Group, Glendale, Or., was killed May l2 when his helicopter crashed in Cow Creek at a logging site northwest of Glendale.

Superior Helicopter LLC, Grants Pass, Or., pilot James Ladd, 41, was retrieving logs with a hydraulic grapple when the accident occurred. The job was part of the Big Pen timber sale on Bureau of Land Management property by Bobby Creek.

Witnesses report seeing the helicopter's rotor blades strike a tree before crashing and sliding down a slope. Ladd, an experienced pilot who worked for the company for about a year, was killed and the helicopter was destroyed on impact.

John David Crow is chairman of the new sawmill, Johnson president and c.e.o., and Tad Price mill manager, the position he held under previous owner, Takeuchi Lumber Co., Ltd., Nagoya, Japan.

The mill will provide 20 jobs and an additional three at a dry kiln in Spanaway, Wa. Takeuchi employed nearly 100 people in the region at the mill, Spanaway dry kiln facility, and a sawmill in Shelton. Wa.

Mill sales manager Hiroshi Takeshima said that the new owners are already filling orders for lumber.

Superior, a subsidiary of Swanson, owns five helicopters it uses for logging, construction lifting, and wildland firefighting.

Layoffs At Sierra-Pacific Mill

Approximately 35 planers from Sierra Pacific Industries Chinese Camp mill were laid off in late May due to insufficient amounts of logs to keep all employees working.

"You can hear the sense of panic in people's voices when they have a job to fill and they can't find the wood in time. When you have l0 of them on hold, you know it's time to raise the price."

- Josh Gibeau, sales manager,

McKenzie Forest Products, Springfield, Or.

According to SPI spokesman Ed Bond, the amount of wood fiber sold annually is only a small percentage of what has been growing in the Stanislaus National Forest in California.

SPI hopes that the layoffs are only temporary. Employees are keeping their health benefits and some are being temporarily transferred to SPI's mill in Sonora, Ca.

The Chinese Camp facility, which cuts smaller logs, has had layoffs in the past, most recently for three weeks in April.