The family forestry company Chantiers Chibougamau has reached an agreement with GreenFirst Forest Products to acquire its activities in Quebec for 90 million, the two companies announced on Wednesday.
The wood products company Chantiers Chibougamau is buying two sawmills in Abitibi-Témiscamingue from Toronto-led GreenFirst Forest Products.
The transaction announced in the amount of $90 million, payable in cash, concerns the sawmills located in La Sarre and Béarn in Abitibi, near the border with Ontario. It also includes forestry operations related to the supply of these two sawmills.
On the labor side, some 320 GreenFirst employees in Quebec will thus be transferred to the employment of Chantiers Chibougamau.
According to company management, the acquisition of GreenFirst’s activities in Quebec is in line with “Chantiers Chibougamau’s desire to consolidate its existing activities and to constantly increase the group’s autonomy and resilience, to better deal with the fluctuations in the timber industry. »
Chantiers Chibougamau indicates that it “will be able to count on more quality lumber boards for its production of engineered wood. »
Also, “the production of kraft (paper) pulp at the Nordic Kraft plant in Lebel-sur-Quévillon will benefit from greater stability in its supply of chips. »
Finally, Chantiers Chibougamau emphasizes that “the workforce of its Scierie Landrienne and those of these two Abitibi-Témiscamingue plants will benefit from the addition of everyone’s talents and skills. »
Following the closing of the asset transaction with GreenFirst, expected within three months, Chantiers Chibougamau will approach the threshold of 1,500 employees in all of its production and industrial processing activities for forest products, which are concentrated in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region.
With the addition of the two sawmills acquired from GreenFirst, Chantiers Chibougamau’s lumber production capacity is expected to reach 600 million board feet. According to the company, such a volume of lumber “would make it possible to build 40,000 single-family homes a year. »
Furthermore, through its subsidiary Nordic Structures, Chantiers Chibougamau has developed significant activities in the design and manufacture of engineered wood products for the construction of buildings.