| 57 Steaming ahead in challenging times Richard Loader There is growing demand for Northpine’s specialist structural timber range, Northbeam. Northpine’s recent purchase and installation of its wood steamer was a direct response to its strategy of focusing on manufacturing specialist large-dimension pine. TIMBER INDUSTRY Northpine to page 58 Nestled on the edge of the small Northland town of Waipu, Northpine timber mill is one of those beautiful Kiwi success stories that speaks of the vision and ambition of its owners, and well-trained staff who want to make a difference. Purchasing the assets of the defunct Waipu Timber Company, Keith Reay an experienced sawmiller, founded Northpine in 1999. A year later Keith was joined by partners Richard Wilson and Bruce Larsen. From that beginning, Northpine had a sawmill, planer and treatment plant, with a staff of 20 and produced about 8000m3 a year. Much has changed in the 22 years since then. “Even though we remain a small sawmill, we’ve relied heavily on technical sawmilling skills,” says Bruce. “Because a lot of people touch the wood and make decisions about the processes, we rely on staff to make good decisions and that determines our profitability. “We started with the idea that we needed to be technically excellent and spent a lot of time and effort training and working with staff so they understood the techniques. “As a result we have well-trained, motivated and engaged staff - and that’s critical for our business success. “We also rely heavily on relationships with suppliers and customers to go through good and bad times, because until very recently sawmilling has been quite a tough industry.” Over the years Northpine has quietly grown, reinvesting a lot of capital back into the business to improve machinery, processes and facilities. A modern planer, boiler and kiln drying facilities and - just last month - a $750,000 steamer have been added In the sawmill the number of machine centres hasn’t changed, but their efficiency has been developed to produce three times as much finished timber. “We now produce about 30,000m3 of Radiata pine a year, and have grown the team to 70, covering all the skill-sets you would expect in a sawmill.” Catchment for Northpine’s logs is anywhere in Northland, a region renowned for growing the high-quality, high-density, mature pine required to produce Northpine’s specialist range called Northbeam. “Raw logs come in daily. We saw the logs into timber, dry it, machine gauge the timber, treat it, package it and sell it to merchants. “The finished timber is predominantly structural products for building houses, decks, walkways, bridges and other big structures — everything from 90mm x 45mm up to 400mm x400mm square posts. “We do a little bit of export, but with the domestic market being short of timber the vast majority is for domestic use.” Bruce says demand is the highest he has seen in the twenty two years of Northpine’s operations. “We’ve never experienced anything like this. Every sawmill in the country is under the pump trying to produce. We’re getting adequate raw logs at the moment, but we’re also a bit reliant on export log prices being reasonable. “In general, only 50-60% of the tree will go to domestic process, the rest will go to export. If there is no offshore market the smaller woodlot owners will leave the tree to grow another day.” “Even though we remain a small sawmill, we’ve relied heavily on technical sawmilling skills.”
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