Hardwood plywood and veneer leader hits 40

Itr/HEN A.J. Honzel and a small V Y group of businessmen purchased a defunct Klamath Falls, Or., plywood plant in July 1957, they laid the groundwork for one of the country's most successful privately owned plywood companies.

From that inauspicious beginning, Portland, Or.-based Columbia Forest Products has evolved into North America's largest manufacturer of hardwood plywood and hardwood veneer, with 3,200 employees and l7 locations across the U.S. and Canada.

Klamath Hardwoods was the little plywood plant that started it all. Practically unheard of at the time, the plant was a cooperative, financed in part by its employees.

Honzel, who served as president from 1957 to 1962, envisioned a new kind of company. In the minutes of the first board meeting of Klamath

Hardwoods, he dedicated the plywood plant "to men with calluses on their hands and honor in their hearts... to thrift and honest work... to faith and the future." The new company made a commitment to manufacture the highest quality hardwood plywood and hardwood veneer and to maintain the highest level of customer service and satisfaction.

Forty years later, Columbia Forest Products still is committed to this philosophy. Under the direction of president and c.e.o. Harry Demorest, the company recently installed a sophisticated automated order tracking system and established a customer response team to improve phone service and increase the speed of generating quotes, placing orders and obtaining up to the minute information on shipping status.

Sold through a network of whole- sale distributors, mass merchandisers and major original equipment manufacturers, its decorative interior veneers and panels are used in highend cabinetry, furniture, architectural millwork and commercial fixtures.

Story at a Glance

With a genesis of calluses and honor, manufacturer grows steadily over 40 years.

Despite the notorious ups and downs of the wood products industry, Columbia has grown steadily and expanded, following the southern and northeastern U.S. and Canadian hardwood forests which supply its raw materials.

In the first two months of 1997, the company acquired a subsidiary raised panel and door plant in Corpus Christi, Tx., and a hardwood plywood plant in Cuthbert, Ga. Last year, it converted its laminated product division in Thomasville, N.C., to Columbia Flooring, and purchased hardwood plywood plants in Hearst, Ontario; St. Casimir, Quebec; Danville, Va., and DeQueen, Ar. ln 1992, Columbia Forest Products built a poplar core veneer plant in Craigsville, W.V. Earlier acquisitions include a half-round slicing operation in New Freedom, Pa.; hardwood veneer face manufacturing mill in Rutherglen, Ontario; a Laminated Products Division in Thomasville, N.C.; and hardwood plywood plants in Chatham, Va.; Trumann, Ar., and Old Fort, N.C., and Indian Head hardwood veneer operations in Presque Isle, Me., and Newport, Vt.