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HUNT MOVES FORWARD WITH LEBLANC
President Richie LeBlanc provides insights on Hunt FP and the wood products industry. also to procure younger talent into the industry? LeBlanc: Labor issues are a common theme at many industry events across the U.S. In the last several years we have experienced many challenges that impacted our work force…Covid, hurricanes, ice and snow storms. Our owners and partners agreed with the company’s leadership to pay all hourly employees during these events that caused extended downtime at our mills. I feel strongly that how we treat our employees during these uncertain times has helped us retain our talent during these trying times. We were able to take advantage of the favorable markets and provide additional bonuses to our employees. We recognize that it is both a business and strategic imperative that talent must be developed from within the organization. Our owners and leadership are committed to helping develop employees and give them the tools and skills necessary to increase employee engagement, thereby enhancing performance.
There’s no shortage of activity for LeBlanc and Hunt FP these days.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following question-and-answer session with Richie LeBlanc, president and CEO of Louisiana-based Hunt Forest Products, LLC, also appeared in the March issue of Panel World, an affiliate of Timber Processing. Family-owned Hunt Forest Products named LeBlanc as president in 2016. After a stellar college baseball career as a pitcher for Louisiana Tech, and several years pitching in the minor leagues for the Kansas City Royals, LeBlanc wrapped up his business degree at La Tech and worked with an insurance agency as vice president in Ruston for 10 years, before joining Willamette Industries in Ruston and then Weyerhaeuser after Weyerhaeuser acquired Willamette in early 2002 following a prolonged takeover battle. LeBlanc served on the integration team,
charged with merging the cultures of Willamette and Weyerhaeuser. He became the land adjustment program manager of Weyerhaeuser’s North Louisiana timberlands organization. In 2015, he was named director of U.S. real estate operations for Weyerhaeuser, before joining Hunt Forest Products. Hunt FP continues to operate a plywood mill in Pollock, La., a hardwood sawmill in Olla, La. and in recent years has partnered with Tolko Industries at a newly constructed sawmill in Urania, La. and at a sawmill under construction in Taylor, La. TP: We hear about labor issues affecting operations across so many industries. Is Hunt seeing this as well, and what initiative is Hunt taking to attract, train and retain employees, and
TP: Developing a company culture continues to be a growing theme. Is Hunt invested in this and what are the keys to its successful implementation? LeBlanc: When we took over in 2016, we started molding the company’s culture into a system that is proactive with respect to safety, capitalization, automation, growth, and development of people. This was a tremendous change from where the company was prior to the change of ownership within the Hunt Family. Trott and Jimmy Hunt have and continue to advocate growth both within existing assets and new projects like the greenfield lumber mill in Urania, La. and the most recent announcement of the new mill in Taylor, La. TP: Given your experience with timberlands, there has been discussion about potential conflicts with carbon credit programs that could essentially take forestland out of timber production. How closely does that bear watching? LeBlanc: I am by no means an expert in the carbon credit markets. I do believe there are areas that can be set aside without much impact to timber production. As we have seen, this is a very dynamic space that will continue to evolve.
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