On January 11, 2010, Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific announced their intention to purchase certain facilities from bankrupt Grant Forest Products in Ontario and South Carolina. The 3 OSB mills in Englehart, Ontario, Allendale and Clarendon, S.C. as well as a manufacturing facility in Earlton, Ontario will be sold for approximately $400 million.
In a media release, Mark Luetters, president of George-Pacific Wood Products said, "These are world-class facilities that fit strategically with our current wood products operations and we are pleased with this opportunity to grow our OSB business in Canada and the U.S."
The deal does not include the Grant Forest Products OSB facility in Timmins Ontario, currently closed under labour conditions and the jointly owned plant in Alberta.
The Grant facility at Englehart is one of the top three producers in North American. The facility has suffered few operation interruptions in the past few years. The Englehart plant is now working at near full capacity.
Grant Forest Products announced a restructuring over a year ago when OSB prices plummeted. The Ontario based company had invested in two new plants in South Carolina.
The deal must meet the basic means test laid out under the Canadian Foreign Investment Review Act. The local MP has written a letter to Industry Minister Tony Clement challenging the government to undertake full due diligence.
Georgia-Pacific have stated that they intend to operate the Englehart OSB facility employing 300 people and also make capital investments to improve facilities and deliver enhanced reliability and efficiencies.
There are no substantial forest lands associated with the Englehart plant. Georgia-Pacific indicated on its website that it does not operate its own forest lands in its U.S. wood product facilities. The company instead purchases wood fibre directly for its supply.
Georgia-Pacific is a private company and a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries, Wichita, Kansas. Koch is one of the private largest family-owned companies in the world. Koch purchased Georgia-Pacific for $21 billion (US) in 2005.
A company that employs 40,000 people world-wide brings strength to a world-class operation like the Englehart plant and the state-of the art facilities in South Carolina.
Grant Forest Products is one of only a couple of large forest industries still based in Ontario. Buchanan Forest Products of Thunder Bay is another. Norbord Inc. also holds it head office in Toronto.
CORRECTION. An earlier reference to a similar company in Earlton was inaccurate. Despite the similarity of logo and colour the companies are not related.
Incorrect information
In your article about Georgia-Pacific expansion into Canada, you state that "There is also a substantial Koch agricultural presence near Englehart in the little town of Earlton." You clearly imply that the Koch presence in Earlton is affiliated with large multinational Koch Industries, sole owner of Georgia-Pacific. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The agricultural business in Earlton is a family run enterprise built from the ground up by the owner and his sons. They just happen to coincidentally share the last name Koch. To even mention them in this article is just sloppy journalism, and could even provide fuel to the fire on this already emotionally charged local issue with implications that are just downright wrong.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Koch logo was checked and appeared entirely similar in form and colour. There is no separate website for the Earlton Koch and a wrong connection was made through local knowledge. This connection was in error and should not have been made.