Klausner Files Bankruptcy
Following several years of below capacity operation and controversy, Klausner Holding USA, owner of sawmills in Enfield, NC and Live Oak, Fla., filed for Chap. 11 bankruptcy in early May, claiming more than $100 million in debt, after the company’s Austria-based employees and executives were apparently “evacuated” to Europe in mid-March with no notice to U.S. employees as the coronavirus crisis expanded.
According to news and legal reports, the mills were closed abruptly in violation of several labor laws. Both sawmills were hit by default judgments in April for no-notice worker pay violations.
The reports paint a picture of employees who were essentially kicked to the curb in mid-March as their jobs and mills were abandoned by management and ownership officials who left the country. According to one report, the mills were left with “no ability to operate, no financing, and no liquidity.”
Once considered major investments courted by communities across the Southeast as the economy improved following the 2008-2009 Great Recession, the Klausner mills never got up to speed anywhere close to their respective 350MMBF capacities.
The Florida mill, which started out under a cloud of foundation issues and construction problems, began operating in 2015. The North Carolina sawmill started up in 2018 and was never able to move into full operation.
Despite drastically improved lumber markets from 2014 through much of 2018, news reports show that neither mill reached the full employment as projected in their respective economic development claims.
RELATED ARTICLES
Binderholz Wins Auction For Klausner Two
Binderholz Wins Klausner Sawmill
Latest News
Mississippi’s Jones Lumber Acquires Rives & Reynolds Lumber
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-1548381510056-0’); }); Jones Lumber Company, the founding organization owned by the Jones Companies in Columbia, MS recently purchased Rives and Reynolds Lumber out of Natchez, MS. This acquisition will allow Jones Lumber Company…
Rex Lumber Plans To Build Sawmill In Alabama, Hunt-Tolko, GP, Canfor Also Announce New Sawmills
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-1548381510056-0’); }); Southern pine lumber sawmills will soon be spreading like kudzu, with four companies in the past 10 days making announcements that they’re building new ones. Rex Lumber Co. plans to invest…
Information To Be Had
Article by Rich Donnell Editor-in-Chief You may be aware that Timber Processing magazine is closely affiliated with Panel World and Wood Bioenergy magazines. While TP obviously covers the lumber industry, PW focuses on panels and…
Find Us On Social
Newsletter
The monthly Timber Processing Industry Newsletter reaches over 4,000 mill owners and supervisors.
Subscribe/Renew
Timber Processing is delivered 10 times per year to subscribers who represent sawmill ownership, management and supervisory personnel and corporate executives. Subscriptions are FREE to qualified individuals.
Advertise
Complete the online form so we can direct you to the appropriate Sales Representative.