NEW Products, NEW Processes
Freres Lumber: Carving out a niche The beam and column line with the new carriage is a way for us to expand on our primary Mass Plywood Panel products. We have the ability to supply a larger percentage of the entire project: beams, columns, and panels
Freres Lumber realized it was missing a portion of its market potential. After researching the mass timber market, the company decided to jump in with its own mass timber offering. With patents in hand, a brand new facility and production process, and very strong markets, the only thing missing was a way to expand the solutions it provided to potential projects. The company turned to USNR to help it realize the full potential of its mass timber appeal
22 International Forest Industries | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2021
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hile the wood processing industry is currently enjoying a hot market for lumber, plywood, and panels, a few years ago the markets were struggling. In 2015 Freres Lumber was challenged in the plywood market with competition from OSB and from imported products. That led the management team to look to broaden the company’s product portfolio and expand its market. Freres Lumber is headquartered at Mill City, OR. Its operation comprises two softwood veneer plants, a plywood plant, a Mass Plywood Panel (MPP) plant, and a cogeneration power plant that produces electricity for the local grid. The plywood plant is in Mill City, while the other operations are down the road in Lyons. The MPP plant employs 20, and the complete contingent of personnel at the Freres company numbers 430. Freres Lumber is family-owned, with Rob Freres as President and brothers Kyle and Tyler Freres managing the day-today operation. In 2015 market challenges were impacting the company’s operation for its primarily plywood products. At the same time, the Freres team
knew their supply of Douglas Fir exhibited superior strength properties for a softwood. Kyle Freres, VP of Operations, explains, “We knew we were not getting full value out of our commodity plywood products, so we started to look into mass timber as a way to fully utilize the strength properties of the wood.” The team traveled to Germany along with a group from Oregon State University (OSU), and toured some Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) facilities. The team thought they could do better than what CLT was offering. “We did some product testing and proof of concept testing that proved out our design, and this resulted in our decision to proceed with the MPP facility.” To date, Freres Lumber has patented its MPP veneer-based mass timber product and its manufacturing process, in 4 countries.
What is MPP? MPP is a structural composite lumber-based panel. Freres has engineered MPP to enhance the natural strength of the wood while adding dimensional stability. Panels can be constructed with a combination of cross-grain
