Canfor announces the purchase of Creston’s Wynndel Box and Lumber

Wynndel Box and Lumber produces premium boards and customized specialty wood products sold under the brand name WynnWood.

by Keith Powell — February 23, 2016

Canfor Corporation has announced that it has entered into an agreement to purchase the assets of Wynndel Box and Lumber Ltd. — Photo courtesy Wynndel Box and Lumber/Kootenay Business

Canfor Corporation (TSX:CFP) announces that it has entered into an agreement to purchase the assets of Wynndel Box and Lumber Ltd., located in the Creston Valley of British Columbia. Wynndel Box and Lumber produces premium boards and customized specialty wood products sold under the brand name WynnWood.

It has access to exceptionally high-quality fibre, and will advance Canfor’s ability to produce a broader mix of higher value specialty products. The acquisition of assets includes a sawmill located in Wynndel, BC with an annual production capacity of 65 million board feet, and approximately 65,000 cubic metres of annual harvesting rights in the Kootenay Lake Timber Supply Area. The agreement is expected to close in the second quarter of 2016 and is subject to customary closing conditions.

“This acquisition will further increase our focus on specialty markets worldwide,” said Canfor Corporation President and CEO Don Kayne. “We are pleased to further grow and diversify the product line we are able to provide to our global customers, and to welcome our new colleagues at WynnWood to Canfor.”

In recent years Canfor has invested over $80 million in their Elko sawmill and the re-opening of the mill at Radium Hot Springs. In the late fall of 2015 the company shuttered its longtime sawmill at Canal Flats putting 80 to 100 workers out of work or transferring to other mills. The Wynndel Box and Lumber company has operated for over 100 years by the Wigen family of Creston.

Canfor is a leading integrated forest products company based in Vancouver, British Columbia (“BC”) with interests in BC, Alberta, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Arkansas. Canfor produces primarily softwood lumber and also owns a 51.9% interest in Canfor Pulp Products Inc., which is one of the largest producers of market northern bleached softwood kraft pulp and a leading producer of high performance kraft paper. Canfor shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol CFP.