The Softwood Forest Products Buyer - July/August 2024

Finished Western Red Cedar ready to be shipped out to Jazz’s customers.
Jazz Forest Products: A Family Company Producing The Finest Western Red Cedar
And Softwood Products
“Knowing that we have control over our products from the very beginning of the process to the very end allows us to make the right
end use product that we know is going into a person’s home. Our main goal will always be to provide a value-added product.”
– Parm Binning, head of marketing and business development, Jazz Forest Products
Jazz Forest Products, headquartered in Abbotsford, BC, is a multi-generational
family owned reman plant and intricate part of the ever-expanding Mirax Group.
The genesis of the company began in 1998 when brothers Jas, Sunny, and Manjit
Binning saw an opportunity to purchase a piece of land, 15 acres to be exact,
and built a remanufacturing business. What started as a custom cut remanufacturing
mill for other local primary manufacturers has grown to 500 employees, with
each of their locations ranging anywhere from 45-60 employees. Jazz has now
become much more than a remanufacturing plant producing Western Red Cedar
(WRC), Douglas Fir, Hemlock, Spruce-Pine-Fir (SPF) and delivering to over 40
countries around the world.
Parm Binning, head of marketing and business development and part of the
second generation of the Binning family, explained, “Around 2006 we started
exporting primarily to India and China. Since then we’ve delivered our products to
Europe, UK, the Middle East, Malaysia, Australia, Japan, and of course the U.S.
About 25 percent of our sales go into the export market while the other 75 percent
is sold throughout the U.S."
A major acquisition occurred in 2020, Rav Binning, also a part of the second
generation and head of North American sales, said, “In 2020 right before Covid
we purchased a sawmill in Sechelt, BC, Suncoast Lumber, a strictly Cedar sawmill
that’s been running WRC for over 40 years."
Parm Binning said, “The purchase of Suncoast made us a vertically integrated
manufacturer. We are now logging crown and private land, sorting the logs at Avalon,
our log sort facility in Gibson, BC, where some go to the open market and the
rest are processed at Suncoast. Finally, the broken-down fiber comes to the site in
Abbotsford for further processing or to our newest facility, Lyle Specialty Forest
Products, which was acquired in February of 2023.”
When Suncoast was purchased, the sawmill had just recently been through a
By Zach Miller
Pictured is a machine feeder processing engineered Cedar boards to paneling at
Jazz.
massive fire. Once rebuilt the operation was equipped with state-of-the-art equipment
including a seven-foot circular double cut head rig, an end feed debarker,
a six-saw shifting edger, a five-foot vertical resaw for secondary breakdown and
trim decks and bin sorters.
“We are always adding, changing or modifying our facilities to make them
more efficient,” said Rav. Recently two high-speed planer lines were added to the
Continued on page 57
Connecting The Dots On Closing
The Skills Gap
Closing the skills gap is more than a popular media
topic; it’s a daily concern for many of us in the forest
products industry, especially as we think about what it will take to maintain sustainable
business operations into the future. Some might say let the “professionals”
deal with it–that is, the school systems and education programs “out there.”
But schools can’t do it alone.
The wood and forest products industry has a fundamental interest in cultivating
and developing the talent needed to handle the jobs that are open, and knowledge
that can help educators. We have a responsibility to continue planting seeds of
career interest in the hearts and minds of current and future generations, the same
way that we diligently plant billions
of seedlings every year to ensure
future growth for tomorrow.
Sometimes we need examples to
show us the possibilities that exist
around us and open our minds to
connecting the dots for our own
businesses.
NAFF Stays Focused
NAFF Stays Focused
On Educating The Next
On Educating The Next
Generation
Generation
In addition to our role as an
industry advocate, we provide
educational tools provided free of
charge to classroom teachers of
grades K-5. Teachers can use our
signature Truth About Trees kits
as springboards for discussion and
deeper learning. Our next step is in
the works–a gamified app directed
toward junior high school students–
that nudges them further along the
path of understanding.
We’re not the only ones helping
to cultivate a healthier future. In
fact, we’re inspired by the work of
other organizations: UFP Business
School, River Parishes Community
College, and companies like Frank
Miller Lumber are jumping in to
change the trajectory of the industry
by inspiring fresh interest in
jobs and career paths that too easily
are overlooked in the traditional
school curriculum or daily conversation
of the wider population.
Two Years to Bachelor of
Two Years to a Bachelor of
Business Administration a
Business Administration +
Rewarding Career – With Zero
a Rewarding Career – With
Debt
Zero Debt
The UFP Business School has
created a new model for education
and career success. With a cycle of
courses year-round for two years,
the program is accelerated, delivering
hands-on experience that combines
paid work with education.
What’s more, the 25 students
entering this program each year
By Allison DeFord
Executive Director
North American Forest Foundation
Collierville, TN
901-860-4131
adeford@northamericanforestfoundation.org
Reliable . Focused . Committed
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won’t be saddled with college debt. Instead, students who are accepted into the
program are employed by UFP and receive 100 percent scholarships into the Business
School.
Instructors in this program are all practitioners currently working for UFP in the
field in which they teach: finance, production management, plant management,
design, marketing, sales, maintenance engineering and IT.
Ann Baker, Dean of the UFP Business School says, “Not only does this reflect a
commitment to real world experience, but it also testifies to the commitment of the
executives who dedicate time and resources to the program.”
Continued on page 68
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