After 87 years, Erickson’s J.H. Huscroft Ltd. sawmill is still going strong, and that won’t change anytime soon.
Justin Storm became president and general manager after entering into a purchase agreement in 2013 “to keep the company in the community, and just keep it sustainable,” he said. “Nobody’s going to get rich in the forest industry; it’s just a matter of keeping it going.”
That’s important to the 75 employees at J.H. Huscroft, as well as the 10 at Kootenay Huscroft Forest Products, a joint venture with the Lower Kootenay Band that creates value-added products, such as panelling and flooring.
Storm started working at the mill when he was 16, earning a millwright apprenticeship through the company. He became project manager and, eventually, mill manager in 2007. His commitment to the business is clear, but he’s also proud to call the Creston Valley home.
“If it had closed, I would still find work in town,” said Storm, a Creston native whose wife and parents were also born and raised in Creston.
As general manager, Storm has taken over for Gwen Telling — her grandfather, John Henry Huscroft, started the mill in 1927 — who has retired Feb. 6 from the day-to-day operation. (She remains on the board and is the corporate secretary.) And filling Telling’s former role as lumber sales manager is Chris Schofer, who started last month.
Schofer, who also owns Simply Fit, isn’t new to the industry. He worked through university—where he earned a bachelor’s degree in management and majored in marketing — by piling at Wynnwood (then Wynndel Box and Lumber). He eventually did sales for Wynnwood for five years before becoming the sales/export manager for Colville, Wash.-based Vaagen Brothers Lumber, a job that required him to be out of town a few days each week.
A husband and father of two boys, taking a job in Creston was a welcome change, as was the opportunity to sell a variety of specialty products — Vaagen’s inventory was limited mainly to two-by-fours, -sixes and -eights — as well as getting to know his clients better.
“With a big company, you’re trying to sell your two-by-four over another guy’s two-by-four,” he said. “But when you’re in a smaller mill, you to have a lot better relationship with customers.”
Those relationships are an aspect of the industry that he enjoys most.
“It is a really personable industry,” he said. ‘There’s not the red tape you get in another industry. I don’t think there’s any other industry where you can handshake a $90,000 deal and be sure it’s going to happen.”
In terms of size, J.H. Huscroft is on the small side, with a forest licence that allows the cutting of 75,000 square metres a year on the company’s blocks (the mill also processes another 25,000 square metres brought in from elsewhere). The modest volume of timber — pine, spruce, hemlock, fir and larch — allows for better renewal and reforestation.
“We could do better if we made it unsustainable,” said Storm. “We could fill our pockets for a few years and then shut down. We’re doing a long-term sustainable model.”
That philosophy has helped the mill through some rough times, such as the economic crash of 2008, which required weathering a few lean years. In time such as that, small mills have to find ways to lose the least, whereas larger mills can absorb some of the impact.
“At the small mills like we are, the highs aren’t as high, but the lows aren’t as low,” said Storm.
Of course, growth is important, but rather than simply producing more lumber, the mill is adding new equipment and technology. The company is spending about $1 million on a new saw with 3D optimization — which should pay for itself in about two years.
Most of J.H. Huscroft’s product is sold in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan, and Creston Valley residents are often able to pick it up too.
“There are a lot of Home Building Centres that carry the product,” said Storm. “We do try to make products available locally as much as possible.”
By remaining small, the mill is better able to support the local economy than if it were to be bought up by a larger company.
“The fibre would still get logged, but the dollars would go there,” said Storm.
“It’s tempting for a big company to buy it, shut it down and take it away,” said Schofer.
But with a solid plan in place for the future, things are looking bright — and a lower Canadian dollar, lower fuel prices and higher log prices give much more reason for optimism among not only J.H. Huscroft, but other mills, as well.
“It’s best if everyone survives,” said Schofer.
This is the second article in a series on Erickson’s J.H. Huscroft Ltd. sawmill. In the first part, Gwen Telling discussed her time with the business and industry.
