Around 27 jobs are disappearing as a result of the closure of Greenwood Forest Products in Penticton, announced late last week.
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April 06, 2021 - 6:00 PM
Around 27 people are out of a job with the permanent closure of a Penticton wood products mill.
The shutdown of Greenwood Forest Products was announced in a media release late last week by company president Wade Walker.
The last day for most employees at the plant was Friday, April 2. A handful of employees will remain to help wind up the business and prepare for an auction.
The company blamed the closure on rising lumber costs and a lack of wood supply over the past five years.
The mill has been operating in Penticton since 1983.
Greenwood Forest Products manufactured laminated-edge glued shelving board, in addition to being a Canadian wholesale manufacturer of high-quality tongue and groove wall panelling using Lodgepole pine and Sitka spruce, information on the company’s website said.
“The price of lumber is just so incredible these days, that even the (remanufacturing) plants are struggling to keep the doors open. Good times in the lumber mills sometimes spells bad times for subsidiary mills that work in the forest industry,” United Steel Workers local 1-423 Kelowna president Pat McGregor says.
He said 27 unionized employees are affected by the closure.
McGregor isn’t aware of the company facing offshore competition but says they did lose a couple of big American customers.
“I believe a lot of their business was in Canada and across the border in the United States. Not a lot went overseas,” he says.
McGregor says he doesn’t know what might become of the mill, which is located on the Penticton Indian Band.
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