Washington’s Simpson Lumber Company Explores Possible Sale

Privately owned Simpson Lumber Co. with mills in Tacoma, Longview and Shelton and the Southeast, is on the sale block. The Tacoma-based company has hired a financial adviser to explore the possibility of selling the concern, the company said in a statement. In addition to its mills in the Northwest, the company has operations in Georgetown, South Carolina, and Meldrim, Georgia. Simpson’s door-making operation, Simpson Door Co., is not for sale. Simpson Door’s sole plant is in McCleary.

Sale of the lumber company would be the second major change for Simpson this year. The company in March announced the sale of its Tacoma kraft paper mill to RockTenn of Norcross, Georgia, for $343 million. As part of that deal, RockTenn signed a seven-year wood chip supply contract with Simpson Lumber Co. Wood chips are the basic raw material from which paper is made.

The company said it sold its sole paper mill in part because a large national company such as RockTenn has the financial muscle to continue needed investments in the mill that weren’t available to the private company. RockTenn has said it will spend some $60 million upgrading the Tacoma paper mill over the next three years. In addition to the paper and pulp mill, the sale included a co-generation facility at the Tacoma Tideflats mill that produces electricity from mill wastes. That power is sold mostly to California utilities to help satisfy their requirements for power from renewable sources.

Simpson Lumber is a major employer in Shelton, where the mill employs some 230 workers, down from 287 earlier this year. In Tacoma, the Simpson sawmill employs 142 workers, the company said Monday. Nationwide, Simpson Lumber Co. employs 800, said company spokeswoman Betsy Stauffer.

From The News Tribune: thenewstribune.com.