Groupe Savoie is a spouse and children-owned and operated hardwood manufacturing business, initially recognized in 1978 by the father and son duo, Hector and Jean-Claude Savoie, in Saint-Quentin, N.B.
What began as a modest family enterprise with a person area has turn out to be a trusted Maritime institution with in excess of 600 workforce, a world consumer foundation and sawmills throughout New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
As softwood production sees a drop in the Maritimes, hardwood is on the upswing as a producing sector trending toward growth. And it is an chance that Groupe Savoie is hoping to choose comprehensive gain of this calendar year.
Jody Hamper is the procurement supervisor for Groupe Savoie’s sawmill in Westville, N.S. At least five times a week, he travels throughout the Maritimes to strike bargains with wood suppliers and landowners in hopes of building financial commitment – and a constant offer of means – for his Westville locale.
“It’s almost nothing to place 80-100,000 kilometres on my pickup a yr, just likely close to looking for logs, conference suppliers and telling them the positive aspects of hardwood and what it would necessarily mean for their small business,” suggests Hamper, describing the day to day hustle associated in marketing the business.
Hamper took above the company’s wooden-obtaining plan 5 several years ago, beginning from scratch on how to solution advertising and marketing and promotion. This incorporated regular radio and newspaper places but constructing new organization relationships with suppliers and contractors has been mostly bolstered by an previous-fashioned personal contact.
“There’ve been a whole lot much more internet site visits to landowners,” states Hamper. “And just operating with the area contractor base in P.E.I., Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, displaying them the price of hardwood logs – that there’s dollars in hardwood, and it is not just a by-item.”
With the softwood market in decline going into the summer months and probably remaining that way for the foreseeable long run, Hamper sees it as an possibility for Groupe Savoie to get an additional foothold in a competitive market that has customarily regarded softwood products and solutions as the much less expensive option.
“I consider this is a big prospect for us correct now, where the softwood market is soft and all the softwood mills are entire,” says Hamper. “This could be our probability to break out and clearly show men and women what hardwood is well worth, and that it’s really worth chopping.”
As a corporation that has progressed with the occasions because its inception, Groupe Savoie’s investment decision in environmentally friendly technology and power-effectiveness initiatives has made it uniquely adaptive to very best tactics in the 21st Century.
“I feel that has to be your main aim to endure at present,” states Hamper. “Our mill in Saint-Quentin takes advantage of all their by-merchandise on-internet site. And we’d really like to do that below [in Westville], but proper now we provide our by-goods off to other mills for funds-circulation applications.”
The company has been pushing for additional clean up electrical power alternate options, together with their building of a pellet plant in 2010, which included the Canawick gas line for environmentally friendly dwelling-heating products and solutions like pellets, blocks, and bricks.
But irrespective of the company’s observe history of ecologically-audio investments, Hamper acknowledges that there are nonetheless a number of hurdles to triumph over for Groupe Savoie to take that following phase as the hardwood powerhouse that it can be.
“We hardly ever get plenty of supply to run our mill comprehensive-time,” states Hamper, who hopes that a blend of the company’s point out-of-the-art technologies and the weaknesses in the existing softwood current market will draw in extra suppliers to learn the assure of chopping hardwood. “It is obtaining superior, but it will take time, funds and work.”
Irrespective of what occurs with softwood, nonetheless, Hamper believes hardwood has nowhere to go but up.
“I believe this will be a very good opportunity for persons to change more than and reduce hardwood,” he claims, “We have no indicator of any cost drop or putting any individual on quota, and our hardwood pulp sector is rather strong correct now.”
To obtain out more about Groupe Savoie and their attempts to expand environmentally friendly operations in hardwood manufacturing, please visit groupesavoie.com
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