Louisiana Pacific, a buildings manufacturer that operates the mill in Golden, has announced that they will be evaluating new strategic options for their Engineered Wood Products (EWP) businesses, of which the Golden mill is a part of.
This will be a part of LP’s transformation strategy, which the company launched a few years ago and will see focus shift to its siding and Oriented Strand Board (OSB) businesses, which LP sees the potential for future growth in.
The decision to re-evaluate and make the change comes after it was announced that LP Houlton, the LP mill in Maine, will be converted into a manufacturer of SmartSide, LP’s siding product, in a quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, Feb. 16.
“With Houlton converting to SmartSide, we will cease LSL [laminated strand lumber] manufacturing there sometime this year, a change that has contributed to a broader re-evaluation of our product portfolio,” said CEO Brad Southern in Tuesday’s call.
“Due to the loss of LSL from our EWP portfolio coupled with our inability to consistently earn the cost of capital in EWP, we have decided to evaluate strategic options for our remaining Engineered Wood Products business.”
Throughout this process, LP has stated that they remain committed to their EWP operations, employees and customers. Breeanna Straessle, senior manager of corporate communications for LP, confirmed that the recent decision will not affect employment at the Golden mill.
“We need our current workforce to continue operating the mill, which is our intent until a strategic alternative has been identified,” said Straessle.
“Through this process, we will remain absolutely committed to operating our EWP business in a way that best benefits LP and all of our stakeholders.”
There is no timeline as to when a new strategic approach will be identified, or what that would look like.
“Currently, we simply do not know more or where these strategic alternatives could ultimately lead us,” said Straessle.
A potential sale of the mill is not off the table, according to Straessle, but said that there is no plans in the works currently to offload the Golden mill.
Until a new strategic approach is identified, LP will not be providing further information.
