“Thank you for calling Weyerhaeuser … ”
The receptionist at the Cedar Palace in Columbia Falls answered the phone Monday morning with a significant distinction while other employees arrived to work this week under a new company.
A familiar name that has been inextricably tied to Montana’s timber tradition for 70 years is no longer.
Plum Creek Timber Co., a forestry giant built in Columbia Falls that played a key role in forest management, land sales and real estate over several decades, is receding from view.
Seattle-based Weyerhaeuser (pronounced wear-howser) officially merged with Plum Creek on Feb. 19, forming the largest private owner of timberland in the U.S, with more than 13 million acres, including 880,000 acres in Montana. Weyerhaeuser purchased Plum Creek for $8.4 billion and shareholders for both companies approved the deal late last week.
The new company is now operating as Weyerhaeuser and the Plum Creek name is being removed from all signs and documents at the local mills and offices as the transition commences for one of the largest employers in Flathead County.
Weyerhaeuser spokesperson Anthony Chavez confirmed that manufacturing operations “will remain in Montana and the jobs associated with manufacturing will remain.”
Plum Creek employed 759 people in Montana, including 633 in the manufacturing division. Plum Creek had stud and plywood mills in Evergreen and plywood and medium density fiberboard plants, as well as a sawmill, in Columbia Falls.
Chavez confirmed that the company would honor Plum Creek’s agreement of allowing free public access for recreationists and hunters on its timberlands. When asked if the company would honor that policy in perpetuity, Chavez said, “All I can say is that Weyerhaeuser will honor those legacy agreements that Plum Creek had made.”
Chavez also confirmed that the largest impacts from the merger would be centered on Plum Creek’s Cedar Palace headquarters, where administrative staffing is based. Plum Creek had roughly 100 employees in administrative positions, including human resources, accounting, payroll and legal.
Company officials have said some positions will be relocated to Weyerhaeuser’s corporate headquarters in Seattle. Other positions will be eliminated over the next 24 months, an official told the Beacon earlier this month.
“There is obviously a duplication in some roles and that will result in some positions being eliminated,” Chavez said. “That work is underway. I don’t have any specifics to share at this point in time. There are still a lot of decisions to be made.”
Upon finalizing the merger, Weyerhaeuser announced the members of the combined company’s board of directors, a group that includes former Montana governor Marc Racicot. The 13-person board includes eight directors from the pre-closing Weyerhaeuser board and five directors from the pre-closing Plum Creek board.
The directors include: Racicot; Rick R. Holley, non-executive chairman; David P. Bozeman; Mark A. Emmert; Sara Grootwassink Lewis; John I. Kieckhefer; John F. Morgan Sr.; Nicole W. Piasecki; Lawrence A. Selzer; Doyle R. Simons; D. Michael Steuert; Kim Williams; and Charles R. Williamson.
Jon Rashleigh, an existing Plum Creek employee, has been named the Montana area general manager in the company’s wood products division.
“This is an exciting day for Weyerhaeuser as we bring together the best assets and talent in the industry,” stated Simons, president and CEO of the new company. “In the coming months, we will be relentlessly focused on creating value for our shareholders by capturing cost synergies, leveraging our scale, sharing best practices, delivering the most value from every acre and driving operational excellence. I look forward to being part of this outstanding team as we work together to be the world’s premier timber, land and forest products company.”
Founded in Washington in 1900, Weyerhaeuser had over 12,600 employees before the merger and operates 18 lumber mills, six oriented strand board mills, six engineered wood mills, three veneer/plywood facilities and 21 distribution centers in the U.S. and Canada.
The merger will mark a new era in timber management in Montana. Plum Creek essentially built an empire headquartered in Columbia Falls, starting in the 1940s, when D.C. Dunham moved his small upstart lumber business to the Flathead Valley and opened a sawmill. He renamed the company Plum Creek after a small stream in his home state of Minnesota, and over the next 30 years two more plants were built locally as the company developed into a real estate and timber giant.
Plum Creek has also been a familiar name in terms of community support across Western Montana. In 2014, Plum Creek provided $205,000 in financial support to community organizations in addition to $15,000 in scholarships to Montana students.
Chuck Roady, director at F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co. in Columbia Falls, said the two timber companies — Plum Creek and Stoltze — have worked together well for decades, helping each other out when it comes to equipment needs and exchanging products.
“Plum Creek has been a very good neighbor to Stoltze for a long time,” Roady said. “I hope Weyerhaeuser will keep that continued relationship with us. We’re all connected at the hip in the forest products industry.”