Ron Matenchuk, the owner of Match Works, is pleased that the company he founded 15 years ago will become part of the UCS family of companies and will be joining the Edmonton Division of Upper Canada Forest Products. Ron’s continuance with the company and Upper Canada’s commitment to excellence in customer service will ensure a smooth transition for Match Works’ loyal customer base.

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to service the customers and suppliers that have been dealing with Match Works in Edmonton. We are grateful to Ron Matenchuk for choosing us as his successor in this market due to our shared values and commitment to customer service. This transaction is also consistent with our strategy of growth and expansion in key markets, and we are very excited about this opportunity” says Warren Spitz, President and CEO of UCS.

Upper Canada Forest Products has “Delivered the Difference” to the Alberta market for the last 16 years and operates a 65,000 sf warehouse in Calgary as well as its brand new LEED certified facility in North West Edmonton. Match Works’ operations will be consolidated into the Upper Canada facility.

About the UCS Forest Group of Companies

The UCS Forest Group of Companies imports and distributes high quality hardwood lumber and decorative panels across North America. Serving our woodworking and architectural millwork customers in 14 regions, we have helped to build our customer’s businesses by seeking innovative solutions and delivering our exceptional service. Over our 30 year history we have expanded to the US as Sierra Forest Products, grown in Canada as Upper Canada Forest Products and internationally as UCS Global. When specialty products are needed, we deliver through A&M Wood Specialty. Whatever your wood or panel needs are, we deliver what you need, when you need it. Our extraordinary people create customer-focused solutions which are delivered through our state of the art warehouses.

“We are delighted with the opportunity to service the customers and support the suppliers that have been dealing with White-Wood throughout British Columbia”, stated Warren Spitz, President & CEO of UCS. “I would like to offer my thanks to Mark Yusishen for choosing us as White-Wood’s successor in this market. Our corporate strategy to grow in key markets continues across North America and we are very excited about this most recent opportunity”

“Our decision to complete this transaction with Upper Canada was based in part on our shared values and commitment to excellence in customer service”, commented Mark Yusishen, President & CEO of White-Wood. “We are confident that our valued customers in B.C. will continue to be well-served.”

This is the third acquisition in the past 10 months for the UCS Forest Group, which recently acquired Reimer Hardwoods operations in Alberta and the Atlas Lumber Company in Los Angeles, California. Upper Canada Forest Products has serviced the British Columbia market for over 20 years and operates from an 80,000 sf warehouse in Burnaby and a second facility in Kelowna. In a timely manner White-Wood’s operations will be integrated into Upper Canada’s facilities.

Upper Canada is very excited to welcome White-Wood’s B.C. team into the UCS Family!

It was apparent from the start of this process that the Porter Family and the Atlas team very much share values with our group, as well as a culture of providing customers with exceptional service and delivering high quality, sustainably sourced wood products. We are very excited about this opportunity to enter the California market, and to having this well-managed company and proud team join our group.

This transaction is consistent with the UCS Forest Group’s strategy of growth and expansion in key North American markets in order to provide those markets with our value creation distribution model and to provide new opportunities for our outstanding team and stable of suppliers.

Please check us out at www.sierrafp.com.

We are very excited to welcome the Atlas Team to the UCS Family!

About the UCS Forest Group of Companies:

UCS Forest Group is one of North America’s premier importers and distributors of specialty products serving discerning customers in the architectural woodworking, commercial and residential furniture, and cabinet-making industries. UCS does business as Sierra Forest Products in the United States, Upper Canada Forest Products in Canada, UCS Global internationally and A&M Wood Specialty. UCS has set the industry standard for value creation for over 25 years. Our extraordinary people, unique supplier relationships, customer-focused solutions and state of the art warehouses provide an unparalleled level of value creation and service to the woodworking industry.

We are proud to feature the following choices…

Beautiful Incadex solid wood decking, a premium imported solid wood decking product available in both Cumaru and Garapa.

Ipe imported solid wood decking, long known for its durability and beauty as an outdoor decking material.

Resysta, with the look and feel of wood but actually made of rice husks, salt, and mineral oil.   25 year warranty.

MoistureShield, an environmentally friendly composite decking that offers a limited lifetime warranty.

For more complete information please visit our decking page on our website or come in to our Outlet Sales Center and view our displays.  We also feature Penofin stains and sealers for your decking project.

“The American Chestnut (Castanea dentata) was one of the most common and important hardwood tree species in the Eastern United States. Its natural range extended from northern Mississippi and Alabama up the Appalachian chain into southern Maine. According to Virginia Tech’s Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, Chestnut was so common, in part, because it could out-compete most other forest trees for the available resources; “These trees got absolutely huge…often with trunk diameters of more than 10 feet and heights well over 100 feet.” Author Susan Freinkel writes, ” Chestnuts grew quickly, with thick, arrow-straight trunks…[the Chestnut] was what ecologists call a keystone species, providing habitat and sustenance for nearly every living thing in the vicinity…

Around 1904, the Chestnut blight fungus was introduced from Asia. First identified on the grounds of the New York Zoological Garden, the fungus was most likely imported unintentionally on Asian Chestnut nursery stock. Once introduced into a tree, the fungus girdles the tree, killing it within 2 to 10 years. As early as 1911, federal funds were appropriated to study and combat the Chestnut blight. A plan was hatched to cut a quarantine line across the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina to stop the southerly spread, but the fungus was discovered in Georgia before the effort was complete. World War I cut funds for the Chestnut blight research and control after 1914 and, within 40 years, most of the American Chestnut trees in the eastern United States were gone (Treadwell)…

In 1983, a group of plant scientists joined together to form The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) with the same goal: to create and re-introduce a blight-resistant Chestnut tree. The foundation has since grown to 6,000 volunteer members, and it maintains 486 regional breeding orchards and 120,000 experimental trees…

The Forest Health Initiative (FHI) was formed early in 2009 to chart a vision for research and policy needed to address forest health through biotechnology. FHI notes in a justifying backgrounder that, while traditional tree breeding and propagation approaches will continue to have a prominent place in forest management and restoration, the severity and types of threats facing the nation’s forested areas require the U.S. to respond more quickly – namely through advances in biotechnology…

Few tree species have inspired more American poets, writers and historians than the American Chestnut and no other former forest giant has engendered so much passion and support to bring back…

You and I won’t be around when the fruits of these Chestnut breeding and genetics programs grow large enough to produce such timbers again…”

To read the complete article, you can go to www.hardwoodreview.com

“Excellent management by the forest products industryand private landowners – along with federal and state regulations that are among the strictest in the world – have kept U.S. forests healthy and growing for decades.  The volume of hardwood sawtimber (trees 11″ and larger in diameter) on U.S. timberlands has nearly tripled since 1953, according to the U.S. Forest Service.  U.S.  hardwood forests are now growing twice as fast as they are being cut, which means harvests could increase substantially without sacrificing future supplies.  In contrast, harvest levels already exceed growth in much of Africa, South America and Southeast Asia, so higher harvesting rates would not be sustainable in the long term.

“U.S. hardwood forests also contain an incredible variety of commercially important species.  Red Oak, White Oak, Poplar, Soft Maple, Hard Maple, Cherry, Ash, Hickory/Pecan, Walnut and several other species are all continuously available in large quantities.  No hardwood forests in the world are managed as well, offer as wide a variety and sustainably provide so much volume.  As U.S. demand for hardwoods rebounds and global demand continues to grow, U.S. hardwood production will be able to grow with it.”

Americans can be proud of how we have managed this important resource that has provided so much toward the growth and development of our country, and those who make their living in the hardwood business can look ahead to a brighter future.

Randy

“Between June 2002 and May 2012, the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) increased 28%, while our green lumber index declined 23% and our kiln-dried index declined 17%.  Had the green and kiln-dried indexes kept up with inflation over the past 10 years, thye would now be at $1,658 and $1,294, respectively, 54% and 66% above today’s actual levels…virtually every major commodity – from forest products to fuel to food – increased substantially during that time.  Examples include crude oil (+325%), cotton (+104%), wheat (+118%), Malaysian sawnwood (+70%), and Cameroon sawnwood (+54%)…Relative to the cost of production and general inflation, North American hardwood lumber is underpriced today.”

So I guess there has been a problem with our industry and it is not really a surprise that so many hardwood lumber producers have gone out of business.  Expenses have risen but prices have not.  Unless there has been some massive improvement in efficiency of manufacturing hardwood lumber then there has been a degradation in profitability.  Probably some of the former but a great deal of the latter.  I was speaking with one industry veteran who said that in his view, every time the hardwood prices take a run up in price, alternatives to solid wood grow in popularity and eat into the demand for solids.  This reduces demand and the prices fall in response.  Not a great model for future profitability!

Randy

You see, we love solid wood products!   But we also know the outside environment here in Southern California   ( usually thought of as one of the kindest on the planet ) can be tough on wood.  Lots of moist air along the coast and at night, blazing hot sun during the day,  sprinklers spraying everywhere, dark colors and little overhang protection on the homes.  It all can add up to trouble for wood being placed in these demanding exterior situations, with the possibility of excessive shrinking and swelling, coating failures and rot and decay.

Along comes Accoya wood,  100% solid  but modified to the core using a non-toxic acetylation process.  This world leading high technology wood is produced from sustainably sourced, fast growing softwood using a non-toxic modification process.  The result is a durable, sustainable and beautiful material with performance characteristics of the most durable tropical hardwoods.  Accoya Wood is indigestible by a wide range of pests and insects ( including termites ).  The exceptional durability and stability helps keep windows and doors from swelling sticking or swelling shut and coatings to last up to 3 times longer.

All of this has led to a much better awareness of Accoya and where it can be a great choice for projects from widows to doors to siding and beyond.  It is not the cheapest alternative, but it can be the lowest cost alternative in the long run.  Please go to our website at atlaslumber.com and to our special section on Accoya wood to find out all the specifics of this exciting wood which proves there IS “something new in the wood business!”

But there is still no substitute for picking up the phone or making a personal sales call to nourish the relationship between buyer and seller.  That is the fun of doing business with other people and still trumps all else.  We buy from people we like.  There is so much competition in every type of business that rarely are we “forced” to do business with someone we don’t like.  In order to like someone or have them like us and choose to do business with us over another company still requires a personal connection.

And of course this is when things are going well!  When we hit a speedbump in the road, a problem, an unmet expectation or outright mess that we have created, the electronic communication can be more of a hazard than a help.  We all have seen it lead to just further problems, misunderstandings, and mayhem.  My father used to tell me, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”.   That is a good line, but maybe what I will pass on to my own kids for this new century  is “When the going gets tough, the tough pick up the phone”!

Randy