If you have ever flown into Vancouver, in British Columbia, you will have likely seen a huge volume of logs being stored and transported in the Fraser River.
The countless rows of bobbing logs are quite a sight and point to a rich history of forest products in the region.
One of the forest products companies based by the river is the only plywood factory still existing in the BC coastal region – Richmond Plywood Corporation (Richply).
Its mill is still located at its original site (founded in 1956), with all logs arriving on the water by tugboat.
The Richply name will be familiar for its diverse value-added product mix including medium and high-density overlays (MDOs and HDOs) for concrete forming, paint grade MDOs for signage, specialty sanded and marine grade panels, as well as standard and select structural sheathing products.
Mark Sutherland, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing, told TTJ that the company still stands as unique in the plywood sector following nearly 70 years of operation.
“We are a plywood producing co-operative, so a good portion of our employees are shareholders of the company,” said Mr Sutherland.
The company employs over 420 people, 250 of whom are shareholders, which means they get to vote on the company’s investment plans and other major decisions.
“In 1956 we started off with 300 shareholders who each contributed C$5,000 of cash and we purchased some land on the banks of the Fraser River,” he explained.
“We built a plywood mill and ever since there has been a professional management team with a board of directors elected by the shareholders. It is a tight relationship where managers manage the business, employees run the plant and work quite closely to make sure we are going in the right direction.”
Richply has stood the test of time and withstood global competition, believes Mr Sutherland, due to the diversity and quality of its product mix, the proximity of the river for log transportation (which also protects logs against fire) and the company’s novel ownership structure, which means no disruptions from labour disputes.
Over the years, the wood diet has changed for the mill. Increasing emphasis on the environment and reforestation has led to protection of older growth forests, with the mill having to adapt to second growth forest comprising trees ranging from 50-80 years old.
The coastal region is predominantly Douglas fir, supplemented by spruce, pine, hemlock and balsam.
“We have a very diverse product mix so we can consume all those species and put them in our panel constructions to meet the demands in the construction industry, both for residential and commercial building,” added Mr Sutherland.
MARKETS
Richply consumes 500,000m3 of logs every year, equating to an annual plywood production of approximately 220,000m3.
“Our shipment geography is primarily North America, with Canada as the largest market,” explained Mr Sutherland.
“We do have a significant volume that has been going into the US.”
Recent declarations on tariffs by the new US president are being watched closely by Richply.
Mr Sutherland said Canada and the US had close trading relationships in many industries, so both economies are closely connected.
“By and large it has been a mutually beneficial economic arrangement between our two countries. The US is part of our geographic mix in terms of our shipments but [the latest tariffs declarations] is opening our eyes that we should be more diversified like we were in the past.”
He explained that the US-Canadian plywood trade enjoyed a more even trade balance, with companies in both countries sending their plywood across the border.
Canadian forest products industries, he said, used to have much bigger European export programmes, with a particularly strong following in the UK and Ireland – though this is more limited than it was decades ago.
A new development is the appointment of Graeme Holburn & Co Ltd as Richply’s UK and Ireland sales agent. This follows the retirement of Tony Muskat, the long-serving agent representing Richply in the UK.
“We were delighted to sign up with Graeme Holburn last summer, we think they have a great reputation,” said Mr Sutherland.
“Gary Mitchell at Graeme Holburn is very familiar with us and the products. We felt strongly that we needed someone to be our eyes and ears to continue to represent us in the UK.
“We want to remind people that Canada is here and has been a big exporter to the UK market in the past, and I think we can be again. Richply has been one of those companies that has maintained a presence on the UK market consistently.”
The UK and Ireland is Richply’s primary offshore market outside of North America, with the concrete formwork overlay plywood the most significant product. There is also export business on the European continent, the Pacific Rim (Japan and Korea) and central America.
PRODUCTS
Richply’s specialty overlay concrete formwork plywood, popular on the UK market, includes the Ultraform brand of medium density overlay (MDO) plywood, an all-Douglas fir panel. Another product, made of hemlock, called Coastform, is also being used in the UK.
Other speciality overlay panels selling in North America include high density overlays and high alkaline overlays.
Overlay panels are, of course, the solution to expanding the longevity of formwork panels and improving smoothness for the finished concrete surface. The protection is needed as the alkalinity of the concrete mix attacks the formwork panels.
“The more you can reuse the panel, the cheaper it is for the end-user. If panels get used only once and are tossed away, it is a false economy,” said Mr Sutherland.
Richply promotes the whole life cost of the materials to contractor customers, explaining to them that buying high quality and reusable products can save them money in the long-term. “But it is sometimes difficult to convince them as many get fooled by some products’ cheaper sticker prices.”
Beyond MDO panels, Richply produces paint grade MDOs, typically for garage doors and hoardings, plus a sanded value-added category using high-end aesthetic veneers.
A marine grade product is also produced.
“I know that marine grade is consumed in the UK, typically using tropical hardwood veneers and it is produced to the BS1088 standard. We can produce a Douglas fir marine grade according to US Voluntary Product Standard PS 1-22, which has a very wide following.”
Richply’s most popular sanded product is its Douglas fir good one side produced to the CSA standard.
Sheathing is the third product category and Richply’s largest category by volume, going into roof, floor and wall applications.
Despite the popularity of OSB for these applications, there are North American regions that prefer the benefits of plywood over OSB, particularly for flooring and highwater applications (bathrooms and kitchens) because of plywood’s propensity to swell less than OSB.
The timber frame wall sheathing market in North America has been largely taken by OSB, but Richply points out that some geographies do not like to use OSB on the roof, due to either slipperiness of the latter or due to damp weather in some regions.
Mr Sutherland says there are opportunities with some of the company’s sheathing products – either spruce or fir sheathing plywood – on the UK market, putting it in competition with Finnish spruce plywood.
“We believe our spruce plywood is of equal quality and we’re working with Graeme Holburn & Co to get some samples over to the UK market for people to see.”
Richply’s high-end defect-free product featuring clear Douglas fir rotary peeled face veneers has been used in some notable projects in the UK, with UK importer EC Griffiths (Décor Solutions) representing Richply for the specific product.
“We’ve landed some wonderful jobs through the Décor Solutions group – some of the Facebook and Google offices used the product,” explained Mr Sutherland.
“Douglas fir has a warmth and a beauty to its grain which is quite attractive for people.”
MILL INVESTMENTS
The Richply factory has seen a continuous process of improvements.
Its most recent technical investments involved a new back-up boiler, a panel repair system, a lay-up line and a core veneer composer.
The back-up boiler, supplied by Cleaver- Brooks, was installed in 2023 to ensure the mill had the power capacity to grow and run newer and bigger equipment.
In 2024, the composer, panel repair system and lay-up line were installed. The core veneer composer is from Hashimoto Denki Co Ltd of Japan, and it is reportedly working very well after a quick installation.
The automatic panel repair system by Con-Vey and Argos Solutions is “AI for the plywood industry”, according to Richply, the equipment making multiple decisions quickly and precisely, whether it is routing out defects or filling out imperfections.
Product repair operations were previously manual, though one of the manual machines has been kept as a back-up.
Raute supplied the lay-up line, the latest equipment from the Finnish manufacturer at the plant. A new Raute lathe was installed in 2019, as well as a veneer stacking line.
The lay-up line was ordered several years ago but the Covid-19 period and related global supply chain issues meant a longer wait than normal for the equipment to be shipped and installed.
The Raute lathe installed in 2019 was designed to address the mill’s fibre diet changes – moving to smaller logs.
“We wanted something that would give a good quality peel but also maintain our productivity,” said Mr Sutherland.
Future investments could include a new dryer. The last dryer installed was in 2014, with two other older dryers also running.
“We have the lathe capacity, and increased dryer capacity would set the stage for the next phase of growth here,” said Mr Sutherland.
THE FUTURE
Richply has seen some volatile trading patterns since the onset of Covid in 2020, from production curtailments at the start of the pandemic to huge demand and soaring prices in the period that followed.
The Covid “hangover” brought forest product companies crashing back to earth, with global inflation and higher interest rates dominating the landscape.
“The last couple of years have been difficult in the forest industry everywhere,” commented Mr Sutherland.
“In North America we are under built and there is a housing crisis. We are expecting at some point there will be a more normal business cycle. I don’t expect there will be another runaway market [like during Covid] where prices go that high. It was once in a lifetime.”
Richply’s market forecast, made in the autumn of 2024, was for a more normal business cycle by mid-2025, with 2026-2027 being relatively good for the North American economy.
The year, thus far, has not yet met those expectations, with much market uncertainty, but the company is positive that underlying fundamentals will support market improvement.
“Interest rates have tamed inflation to a certain degree. Signals suggest the Federal Reserve may do a couple of 0.25% interest rate cuts in 2025. I think developers are going to start to get things going. That’s what we’re hearing from customers and the second half of this year should be a bit more active.”
