News and Public Relations

Northern Hardwoods Scanners

Emporium Hardwoods Capital Improvements

Barkley Joins Hardwood Lumber Manufacturing

Hardwood Magazine March 2006 Feature Article (Text Version)

Hardwood Magazine March 2006 Feature Article Timberline March 2006 Article

Northern Hardwoods Scanners

South Range, Mich.—Northern Hardwoods, a division of Hardwood Lumber Manufacturing, recently completed installation of new log scanning technology worth almost $500,000 at its sawmill in South Range, Mich. This technology has significantly improved the facility’s productivity, overrun and grade recovery, and will further enhance Northern Hardwoods’ ability to service its customers with the best specialty Northern Hardwood species.

Emporium Hardwoods Capital Improvements

Emporium, PA—Emporium Hardwoods, a division of Hardwood Lumber Manufacturing, recently completed a $1.5 million investment in new equipment upgrades at its sawmill facility in Emporium, Pennsylvania.  An optimized trimmer, more efficient lumber stacker and a high speed carriage drive will significantly improve the facility’s efficiency, productivity and recovery, further enhancing  Emporium’s ability to service its customers with the best specialty Northern Appalachian hardwood species.

Hardwood Lumber Manufacturing’s two divisions, Northern Hardwoods and Emporium Hardwoods, located in Emporium, Pa., have been leading producers of high quality Northern Appalachian and northern specialty hardwood lumber for more than 40 years.

Barkley Joins Hardwood Lumber Manufacturing

Memphis, Tenn.—Sam Barkley recently joined Hardwood Lumber Manufacturing as a field sales representative and will be working out of a satellite office location in the Memphis area, with responsibilities for the sale and marketing of lumber products for the company's Emporium Hardwoods and Northern Hardwoods divisions.

Barkley has more than 10 years of Hardwood lumber industry experience, including sales and credit responsibilities. He earned his bachelor of science degree in business administration from the University of Mississippi.

Hardwood Lumber Manufacturing is based in Charlotte, N.C. and it's two divisions, Emporium Hardwoods in Emporium, Pa., and Northern Hardwoods in South Range, Mich., have been leading producers of high quality Northern Appalachian and Northern specialty Hardwood lumber for more than 40 years.

National Hardwood Magazine March 2006 Feature Article
HLM, Inc.; The Right People, The Right Product

By Terry Miller

Charlotte, N.C.—Despite its somewhat generic name, Hardwood Lumber Manufacturing Inc., or "HLM", is far from the norm when it comes to doing business in the hardwood lumber industry. The company has a keen focus on maintaining high standards in all aspects of their business from selecting the right trees in the woods to delivery of the finished product desired by the customer. This dedication to high standards is reflected in its company credo, “Two Mills…One Extraordinary Commitment To Quality.” HLM’s past success and continuing quest for quality would not be possible without its ideal geographical wood basket locations, its well-seasoned and dedicated employees and its strong relationships with suppliers and service providers, all of which ultimately provide HLM's customers with some of the finest hardwood products on the market today.

HLM, a leading producer of Appalachian and Northern Hardwood lumber, manufactures more than 40 million board feet annually and employs over 200 people across 3 separate locations. The company is comprised of two separate manufacturing divisions located in Pennsylvania and Michigan and has a small headquarters office located in Charlotte, North Carolina. Heading up the operation, serving as President and Chief Operating Officer, is Dave Marshall. With the Company since 2003, Marshall brings over 20 years of diversified industry manufacturing and financial experience.

" We know that the one constant in this business is change and that now more than ever a successful company in this industry must adapt and prosper from change that seems to be happening faster and faster. A strategic vision and plan for the future with a continuing emphasis on people, relationships and quality should give us a great opportunity to build on the success that we have sustained in our marketplace. Over the last few years, we have worked extra hard to earn trust and respect with our customers, our employees, our loggers and suppliers, and to be as responsive as we can to their needs. That, in conjunction with having a very high quality product, is what makes us successful,” Marshall commented.

HLM's operating divisions include Emporium Hardwoods and Northern Hardwoods. Emporium Hardwoods, located in the heart of the Allegheny Mountains in north central Pennsylvania is well known for its rich, tight-grain black cherry and soft maple. Boasting a 120-acre mill site, with over 163,000 square feet of enclosed production space, Emporium’s sawmill produces over 20 million board feet of lumber each year. In addition to cherry and soft maple production, the facility manufactures hard maple, red oak and ash.

“Sitting where we are located in the Alleghenies, we have access to some of the best cherry in the world,” said Bill Johns, Chief Forester at Emporium.

According to Johns, logs are primarily procured within a 50 to 100-mile radius. The company is currently operating 14 contracted logging crews, most of with whom they have done business with for many years.

“We currently produce about 40 percent cherry, 40 percent soft maple, 15 percent hard maple and then ash,” Johns stated.

Johns said that ideal weather conditions, which include a short growing season, contribute to the “very tight grain quality lumber.”

“The quality of our timber and the dedication and experience of our loggers gives us an outstanding product,” Johns said.

Serving as General Manager of Emporium Hardwoods is Jared Fowler, who brings extensive hardwood lumber production experience to the Company. Fowler said that the Company's recent investments in equipment upgrades has helped not only to improve yields and production, but has served to demonstrate to employees and customers alike that the Company has a vision for continuing its success well into the future.

Technology has been at the forefront of Emporium sawmill equipment upgrades in recent years, with significant investments in optimization for a new drop saw trimmer, edger and headsaw, all of which utilize optimizing software developed by the industry leader, Inovec. Capital improvements during 2005 also included a new TS Manufacturing lumber stacker, Jacobson AC carriage drive and a VKB ring debarker.

“The sawmill production flow is basically the same as it was 30 years ago. We've taken that basic efficient layout and made it even better” Fowler said.

At the beginning of the sawmill production process, after logs are debarked by the VKB ring debarker, they are conveyed to a 6' McDonough double-cut headsaw and cut on four sides prior to going to one of the mill's two 6-foot McDonough linebar resaws. After the resaws, the lumber is conveyed to the optimizing edger and trimmer. Immediately following the trimmer, the lumber conveys to the green chain, where it is sorted by thickness, grade and length. Most of the lumber gets stacked on sticks with the TS Manufacturing stacker and is then sent to the air-drying yard prior to going into the dry kilns. However, some lower grade lumber is sold as green.

"Thanks to our new stacker, we are able to sticker all of our lumber on one shift instead of two. The stacker has also significantly improved the lumber handling process for our employees, which in turn has positively impacted employee morale." Fowler added that lumber units are stacked straight and uniform and topped with a concrete slab. "The concrete tops keep Mother Nature from getting to the boards, and it helps to hold the boards in place all the way through the drying process. The concrete does not come off until we start grading and packaging the product. We put a lot of time and effort into our kiln drying," Fowler stated.

After a short air-drying process the lumber then is transferred to the dry kilns, some of which are made by SII Dry Kilns. Prior to stacking, thicker stock is waxed on the ends using Anchorseal®, a product manufactured by U•C Coatings Corp. This eliminates splitting or end checking. Maple products are stacked on breeze-dried sticks to ensure flat shadow free lumber.

Emporium has approximately 600,000 board feet of kiln capacity and dries about 12 million board feet per year. Kilns are fueled by natural gas, a decision made by the company during the 90s when they realized that their wood waste system was not efficient enough.

Emporium sales are handled by Randy Flament, who has worked for the company for over 25 years, and Sam Barkley, who recently joined the team and is responsible for sales at both Emporium and Northern Hardwoods. Flament said that the Company's black cherry lumber continues to be in high demand .

“In the upper grades, we sell 6 to 16 foot lengths, with width for 4/4 full sawn at about 7 inches. Average widths will vary in the common grades, with the average length being about 10 feet,” Flament said.

Along with cherry production, hard and soft maple are manufactured in full sawn 4/4 and red oak in full sawn 4/4 or 5/4 thicknesses.

Emporium ships product coast-to-coast, to Canada and overseas to customers that include product end users, such as flooring producers, kitchen cabinet manufacturers and millwork and moulding plants, and to distributors and wholesalers. The company offers mixed trailer loads in a variety of species and thicknesses. Products are sorted and packaged according to length. Samples are also offered… just another step the company takes to ensure quality.

A desire for quality is also present on a daily basis at Northern Hardwoods, HLM's division situated on 125 acres in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in South Range, Mich. The site includes 155,000 square feet of enclosed production space. Here, lumber industry veteran Bill Check directs his experienced and capable team, serving as General Manager. From forestry to sales, Check has worked with wood products since 1976.

Northern Hardwoods procures many of its logs from a peninsular area known as the Keweenaw, a unique wilderness carved out of Lake Superior’s rugged north shore. From this area, the company produces “hard maple as white as the snow, tight-grained red leaf maple, red oak, white birch... yellow birch and even exotic Birdseye Maple.” Thirty percent of the logging is done by independent contractors, who, like Emporium's crews, have worked with the Company for a long time.

“We have the best hard maple in the world, and our soft maple is almost as brilliant as the hard maple. The Keweenaw Area has long, harsh winters, often times averaging over 200 inches of snow. The tree's short growing season results in a very dense, white hard maple," Check said.

Like Emporium, a significant upgrade of sawmill production equipment at Northern Hardwoods has been made. “We have invested a lot of money into our operation in recent years,” Check said.

As logs arrive at the facility, they are first processed through a Nicholson debarker. Once they have been debarked, they are conveyed to one of two McDonough single cut or double cut band saws, which operate at a 5,500 board feet per hour rate. Once the best boards have been sawn, the remaining cant is dumped to a gang saw. "It’s a balance of quality and speed," Check said. "We're mainly using band saws to carefully strip the grade boards from the log and the thin kerf gang saw to quickly handle the lower-grade cant."

The next step in the production process sends the board through a USNR optimized edger. From the optimized edger, it goes to a trimmer and an Automated Lumber Handling 27-bin sorter.

Hours later, the lumber is in a 600,000 board foot capacity predryer, the first step of the drying operation at Northern Hardwoods. "I don't believe that you can consistently produce extremely white hard maple without the aid of a predryer. It’s a critical step," Check stated. The lumber is slowly dried until the moisture content has reached 18% to 20%. The Company's three-time Lake States Kiln Operator of the Year, Dave Regis, then schedules it for the final drying process in one of the four kilns. To reduce energy costs, the entire mill, including the kilns and predryer, are heated using wood waste.

Lumber surfacing is accomplished with a Newman 282 planer, and graded a second time using an Automated Lumber Handling grading station. "Our customers appreciate the fact that we look at the lumber a second time." Check said.

Producing over 20 million board feet per year, Northern Hardwoods’ main species is hard maple, soft maple, yellow birch and red oak. The division also offers cherry, white birch and occasionally basswood and ash. The mill mainly saws 4/4 lumber, but produces white hard maple in 4/4 through 8/4 thicknesses.

The on-site sales team at Northern Hardwoods consists of Diane Beauchamp and Paul Isaacson. Northern ships product across the U.S. and Canada to product end users, distributors and wholesalers.

“We have an excellent group of people, and we all take a lot of pride in our jobs and the lumber we produce. Our geographical region is part of the reason for the great color and quality of lumber we manufacture, but our people are our best asset,” Beauchamp said.

Across the entire Company, HLM places an emphasis on teamwork, with frequent communication between functions and company locations and an emphasis on key metrics, including a balanced scorecard measurement system, which tracks both financial and non-financial key measures. Rochele Saline, HLM Corporate Controller, says "While the effort required to track our measures is substantial, we believe that the effort is worthwhile because we are able to more quickly address both profitability and balance sheet issues in a business that is extremely working capital intensive and not always the easiest to analyze due to grade mix issues."

Hardwood Lumber Manufacturing has a commitment to forest stewardship and industry involvement and holds memberships with the following associations: National Hardwood Lumber Assoc., Lake States Lumber Assoc., Indiana Hardwood Lumbermen’s Assoc., Penn-York Lumbermen’s Club, Sustainable Forestry Initiative, Timber Producer's Association, Michigan Forest Resource Council, Pennsylvania Forest Products Assoc., and is an associate member of the Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association.

With a continuing focus on relationships, communication and teamwork coupled with timely and prudent capital investment , Hardwood Lumber Manufacturing has consistently delivered to its customers some of the very best Appalachian and Northern species in the world. The Company has plans to continue to succeed in the hardwood lumber business by adapting to industry changes as quickly as possible, leveraging its strong geographical “wood basket” location, investing in optimization technologies that improve yield and increase production and providing the finest customer service possible.