Therefore, the Vancouver Forestry Company acquired the Val d’Or and Matagami saws, as well as the Sullivan secondary processing plant.
According to Eric LaRouche, who will be joining Interfor as Senior Vice President, this is excellent news for the area’s 280 employees. They will see more job opportunities within the group, which has about thirty factories in North America.
It also raises the ceiling of opportunities for our communities in terms of investing in our factories that need them. Our bread and butter for making wood. Interfor also comes with an impressive track record, having made acquisitions in the past. It worked with existing teams to increase their efficiency, but also worked with a roadmap for major investments. Their factories are state-of-the-art
says the man who runs all of the manufacturing and logging activities in eastern Canada.
Rebuilding the Matagami Factory
On the subject, Eric Laroche specified that Interfor plans to invest approximately $41 million in its nine plants in eastern Canada. No project has been announced in the region yet, but it ensures that all investment opportunities are studied with the management of each factory.
For my part, the file closest to my heart is the Matagami file, as I will work hard until we can rebuild the entire plant. It’s a long-term project, with an investment of $20-25 million that we’ve started working on with partners at Eacom. This is not a project that can be easily announced tomorrow morning. It takes engineering plans, and it takes a lot of work up front
He says.
Matagami sawmill (archive)
Photo: Radio Canada / Bell Cote
EACOM has just completed an investment of approximately $9 million to replace the old dryer in the Matagami sawmill with a continuous dryer, which is a new technology.
Eric Laroche confirmed that the Val-d’Or and Sullivan plants will also be the subject of short or medium-term investments.
