New deal creates jobs, renewable energy source
A California company with offices in Portland is teaming up with a Maine golf tee maker to salvage scrap wood and nearly 150 jobs.
San Diego-based International WoodFuels LLC plans to build a $20 million wood pellet manufacturing plant adjacent to Pride Manufacturing Co. LLC in Burnham, which makes wooden golf tees. The two companies will share a log yard, according to Steve Mueller, president of International WoodFuels, whose company will use Pride's scrap wood as some of the raw material for its pellets.
The plant, which will be Maine's fifth pellet manufacturer, hopes to break ground in September and start operating about a year later, said Mueller. To make its goal of 100,000 tons of wood pellets annually, the company will require 200,000 tons of whole logs a year, which is five times greater than what Pride requires. Mueller said International WoodFuels is working on agreements with landowners within an hour's drive of the new facility to meet the plant's demands.
"We'll be bringing in 25,000 tons a month of logs," said Mueller. "Sharing the log yard with Pride, which has a great staff, master millwrights and experienced operators, sure beats doing it ourselves."
The added tonnage will help Pride save money on wood purchasing, and enable it to retain its 145 employees. The company has been struggling to remain competitive with Chinese golf tee makers and had even been considering moving there, according to Matt Jacobson, president of Maine & Co. in Portland, who brokered the deal between Pride and International WoodFuels.
Meanwhile, International WoodFuels will create up to 35 new jobs to make its wood pellets, which Mueller says will all be sold in Maine. Mueller's company sells wood pellets and the boilers that run on them to commercial and institutional customers, according to a press release.
Jacobson, who's running for governor in 2010, played matchmaker for the two companies. He said Pride called him when it was looking to find outlets for its wood scrap and reduce costs. Meanwhile, International WoodFuels had been looking to build a new wood pellet plant somewhere in Vermont or western Massachusetts.
International liked that Pride would provide a good base of its "life blood," or what Pride calls its scrap, and that it could easily move in next door because all the industrial permitting was already in place, Jacobson said.
"The story here is, we're keeping a company here and adding a new capability," Jacobson told Mainebiz.
Mainebiz web partners
Most Recent
Comments