Boise Cascade Holdings, LLC, which uses the trade name Boise, is an American pulp and paper company, ranked as the thirteenth largest forest products company in the world. It is composed of the assets sold off when the publicly-traded Boise Cascade Corporation renamed itself OfficeMax Inc. (after acquiring the company of the same name in 2003).
Boise Cascade Holdings, L.L.C., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the distribution of building products, and production of engineered wood products (EWP) and plywood in North America. The company's Building Materials Distribution segment engages in the wholesale distribution of building materials, including EWP; oriented strand boards; plywood; lumber; and general line items, such as framing accessories, composite decking, roofing, siding, and insulation. This segment markets its products primarily to retail lumber yards and home centers that resell building materials to professional builders, independent contractors, and homeowners in the residential, light commercial construction, and repair-and-remodeling markets. As of December 31, 2009, the company operated 31 wholesale building materials distribution facilities. Its Wood Products segment produces EWP consisting of laminated veneer lumber used in beams; I-joists, a structural support used in floors and roofs; and laminated beams. It also offers plywood, particleboards, dimension lumber, and ponderosa pine lumber, which are primarily sold to manufacturers of wood windows, moldings, and doors. This segment's products are used primarily in the residential, light commercial construction, and repair-and-remodeling markets. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Boise, Idaho
Boise Cascade continued to be troubled into 1994, suffering from the prolonged slump in paper prices and burdened by a $2 billion debt load. The company paid down some of the debt by issuing almost $500 million in preferred stock in 1992 and 1993. Overall sales were on the rise in 1993 and 1994, growing to $3.96 billion and $4.14 billion, respectively, but Boise Cascade continued in the red, posting net losses of $77 million in 1993 and $63 million in 1994. In April 1994 Fery retired from his position as CEO, remaining chairman, with George J. Harad, who had been president and chief operating officer, moving into the CEO slot. Harad soon took on the chairmanship as well.
During 1995 Boise Cascade rode a sharp increase in paper prices to record sales of $5.07 billion and net income of $352 million, which resulted in the company's first profitable year since 1990. That year the company was also in the midst of a three-year restructuring of its paper division, in which five paper mills were sold or shuttered and the division shifted to a primary focus on office, printing and converting, packaging, and value-added uncoated white papers. In 1995 the company sold its remaining stake in its Canadian newsprint unit, Rainy River Forest Products Inc. During the following year came the sale of a coated-paper mill in Rumford, Maine, and 667,000 acres of woodlands to Mead Corporation for about $650 million. Meanwhile, in April 1995 Boise Cascade also sold 17.3 percent of its office products subsidiary, Boise Cascade Office Products (BCOP), to the public in an initial public offering of 10.6 million shares at $12.50 per share. Immune to the ups and downs of the paper industry, BCOP had been a consistent bright spot for Boise Cascade since it exited from the wholesale sector in 1992. Revenues for BCOP increased from $672 million in 1992 to $1.99 billion in 1996 while net income increased from $19 million to $102 million during the same period.
Boise Cascade faced additional challenges in its wood products manufacturing unit, as prices for lumber were flat at the same time that timber sales from federal lands were dwindling, driving up production costs. Unable to operate them at acceptable levels of profitability, the company closed sawmills in Horseshoe Bend, Idaho, and Fisher, Louisiana, during 1998 and a sawmill in Elgin, Oregon, in 1999. A plywood plant in Yakima, Washington, had also been slated for closure but remained open following a major fire in September 1998 at the company's plywood plant in Medford, Oregon. In October 1999 Boise Cascade also sold 56,000 acres of timberland in central Washington to U.S. Timberlands Yakima, L.L.C. for about $60 million.
In September 1999 Boise Cascade completed the acquisition of Furman Lumber, Inc., based in Billerica, Massachusetts. The purchase added 12 regional building materials distribution centers in the East, Midwest, and South to the company's wholesale building products unit, which already boasted 16 such centers, most of which were located in the West. Boise Cascade thereby became a national distributor of various commodity and value-added building products. Furman had recorded fiscal 1999 sales of $574 million, while the company's building products distribution unit had posted sales of $861 million in 1998.
Boise Cascade did not fare as well with an attempted bid for Le Groupe Forex Inc., Canada's leading maker of oriented strand board, a product similar to plywood in strength but cheaper to produce. In a battle with Louisiana-Pacific Corporation waged in the summer of 1999, Boise Cascade lost a bidding war despite making two separate offers for Forex, of $470 million and $500 million.
Through the first nine months of 1999, Boise Cascade appeared headed for a possible turnaround year, with sales of $5.08 billion, an increase of almost ten percent over the same period during 1998, and net income of $124.3 million, a vast improvement over the net loss of $25.9 million recorded in 1998. In a period of consolidation brought about by industry-wide excess production, Boise Cascade--despite its improved performance&mdash⟩peared vulnerable to a takeover by a larger forest products rival. In addition to Louisiana-Pacific's takeover of Forex, International Paper Company acquired Union Camp Corporation, and Weyerhaeuser Company took over MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. Potential suitors of Boise Cascade could view the company's stake in Boise Cascade Office Products as a potential post-takeover cash-raising divestment, increasing the likelihood of a takeover.
Principal Subsidiaries:Boise Cascade Office Products Corporation (81.2%); Boise Southern Company; Minidoka Paper Company.
Principal Competitors:Bowater Inc.; Champion International Corporation; Georgia-Pacific Corporation; International Paper Company; Fort James Corporation; Louisiana-Pacific Corporation; The Mead Corporation; Potlatch Corporation; Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation; Temple-Inland Inc.; Westvaco Corporation; Weyerhaeuser Company; Willamette Industries Inc.; Corporate Express Inc.; Office Depot Inc.; Office Max Inc.; Staples Inc.; US Office Products Company.
Statistics:
Public Company
Incorporated: 1931 as Boise Payette Lumber Company
Employees: 23,039
Sales: $6.16 billion (1998)
Stock Exchanges: New York Midwest
Ticker Symbol: BCC
NAIC: 113110 Timber Tract Operations; 113310 Logging; 321113 Sawmills; 321210 Veneer, Plywood, and Engineered Wood Product Manufacturing; 322100 Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills; 322211 Corru-gated and Solid Fiber Box Manufacturing; 322230 Stationery Product Manufacturing; 421310 Lumber, Plywood, Millwork, and Wood Panel Wholesalers; 421330 Roofing, Siding, and Insulation Material Wholesalers; 421390 Other Construction Material Wholesalers; 453210 Office Supplies and Stationery Stores; 454110 Electronic Shopping and Mail-Order Houses; 454390 Other Direct Selling Establishments
Key Dates:
1902: Cascade Lumber Company of Yakima, Washington, is founded.
1931: Boise Payette Lumber Company is founded.
1957: Boise Cascade Corporation is created through the merger of Boise Payette Lumber and Cascade Lumber.
1958: The company's first pulp and paper mill and first corrugated container plants are built.
1964: Boise Cascade enters the office products distribution business.
1969: Diversification program results in various activities, including land development, recreational vehicle production, and cruise management.
1972: John Fery takes the helm, focusing the company on core areas: paper, building products, and office products distribution.
1987: Company sells its consumer packaging division.
1990: Recession hits Boise Cascade hard.
1992: Wholesale segment of office products distribution business is sold.
1994: Paper division begins three-year refocusing, with five paper mills sold or shut down.
1995: Company sells minority stake in Boise Cascade Office Product Corporation, retaining an 82.7 percent interest.
1999: Billerica, Massachusetts-based Furman Lumber, Inc., is acquired and merged into the company's wholesale building products unit.
KEY EXECUTIVES
Mr. Thomas E. Carlile
Chief Executive Officer and Director
Age: 58
Mr. Nathan David Leight
Executive Officer
Age: 51
Mr. Wayne M. Rancourt
Chief Financial Officer
Age: 47
Mr. Thomas A. Lovlien
President of Wood Products Manufacturing
Age: 54
Mr. Stanley R. Bell
President of Building Materials Distribution
Age: 63
Address:
1111 West Jefferson Street
P.O. Box 50
Boise, Idaho 83728-0001
U.S.A.
Boise Cascade Holdings, L.L.C., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the distribution of building products, and production of engineered wood products (EWP) and plywood in North America. The company's Building Materials Distribution segment engages in the wholesale distribution of building materials, including EWP; oriented strand boards; plywood; lumber; and general line items, such as framing accessories, composite decking, roofing, siding, and insulation. This segment markets its products primarily to retail lumber yards and home centers that resell building materials to professional builders, independent contractors, and homeowners in the residential, light commercial construction, and repair-and-remodeling markets. As of December 31, 2009, the company operated 31 wholesale building materials distribution facilities. Its Wood Products segment produces EWP consisting of laminated veneer lumber used in beams; I-joists, a structural support used in floors and roofs; and laminated beams. It also offers plywood, particleboards, dimension lumber, and ponderosa pine lumber, which are primarily sold to manufacturers of wood windows, moldings, and doors. This segment's products are used primarily in the residential, light commercial construction, and repair-and-remodeling markets. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Boise, Idaho
Boise Cascade continued to be troubled into 1994, suffering from the prolonged slump in paper prices and burdened by a $2 billion debt load. The company paid down some of the debt by issuing almost $500 million in preferred stock in 1992 and 1993. Overall sales were on the rise in 1993 and 1994, growing to $3.96 billion and $4.14 billion, respectively, but Boise Cascade continued in the red, posting net losses of $77 million in 1993 and $63 million in 1994. In April 1994 Fery retired from his position as CEO, remaining chairman, with George J. Harad, who had been president and chief operating officer, moving into the CEO slot. Harad soon took on the chairmanship as well.
During 1995 Boise Cascade rode a sharp increase in paper prices to record sales of $5.07 billion and net income of $352 million, which resulted in the company's first profitable year since 1990. That year the company was also in the midst of a three-year restructuring of its paper division, in which five paper mills were sold or shuttered and the division shifted to a primary focus on office, printing and converting, packaging, and value-added uncoated white papers. In 1995 the company sold its remaining stake in its Canadian newsprint unit, Rainy River Forest Products Inc. During the following year came the sale of a coated-paper mill in Rumford, Maine, and 667,000 acres of woodlands to Mead Corporation for about $650 million. Meanwhile, in April 1995 Boise Cascade also sold 17.3 percent of its office products subsidiary, Boise Cascade Office Products (BCOP), to the public in an initial public offering of 10.6 million shares at $12.50 per share. Immune to the ups and downs of the paper industry, BCOP had been a consistent bright spot for Boise Cascade since it exited from the wholesale sector in 1992. Revenues for BCOP increased from $672 million in 1992 to $1.99 billion in 1996 while net income increased from $19 million to $102 million during the same period.
Boise Cascade faced additional challenges in its wood products manufacturing unit, as prices for lumber were flat at the same time that timber sales from federal lands were dwindling, driving up production costs. Unable to operate them at acceptable levels of profitability, the company closed sawmills in Horseshoe Bend, Idaho, and Fisher, Louisiana, during 1998 and a sawmill in Elgin, Oregon, in 1999. A plywood plant in Yakima, Washington, had also been slated for closure but remained open following a major fire in September 1998 at the company's plywood plant in Medford, Oregon. In October 1999 Boise Cascade also sold 56,000 acres of timberland in central Washington to U.S. Timberlands Yakima, L.L.C. for about $60 million.
In September 1999 Boise Cascade completed the acquisition of Furman Lumber, Inc., based in Billerica, Massachusetts. The purchase added 12 regional building materials distribution centers in the East, Midwest, and South to the company's wholesale building products unit, which already boasted 16 such centers, most of which were located in the West. Boise Cascade thereby became a national distributor of various commodity and value-added building products. Furman had recorded fiscal 1999 sales of $574 million, while the company's building products distribution unit had posted sales of $861 million in 1998.
Boise Cascade did not fare as well with an attempted bid for Le Groupe Forex Inc., Canada's leading maker of oriented strand board, a product similar to plywood in strength but cheaper to produce. In a battle with Louisiana-Pacific Corporation waged in the summer of 1999, Boise Cascade lost a bidding war despite making two separate offers for Forex, of $470 million and $500 million.
Through the first nine months of 1999, Boise Cascade appeared headed for a possible turnaround year, with sales of $5.08 billion, an increase of almost ten percent over the same period during 1998, and net income of $124.3 million, a vast improvement over the net loss of $25.9 million recorded in 1998. In a period of consolidation brought about by industry-wide excess production, Boise Cascade--despite its improved performance&mdash⟩peared vulnerable to a takeover by a larger forest products rival. In addition to Louisiana-Pacific's takeover of Forex, International Paper Company acquired Union Camp Corporation, and Weyerhaeuser Company took over MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. Potential suitors of Boise Cascade could view the company's stake in Boise Cascade Office Products as a potential post-takeover cash-raising divestment, increasing the likelihood of a takeover.
Principal Subsidiaries:Boise Cascade Office Products Corporation (81.2%); Boise Southern Company; Minidoka Paper Company.
Principal Competitors:Bowater Inc.; Champion International Corporation; Georgia-Pacific Corporation; International Paper Company; Fort James Corporation; Louisiana-Pacific Corporation; The Mead Corporation; Potlatch Corporation; Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation; Temple-Inland Inc.; Westvaco Corporation; Weyerhaeuser Company; Willamette Industries Inc.; Corporate Express Inc.; Office Depot Inc.; Office Max Inc.; Staples Inc.; US Office Products Company.
Statistics:
Public Company
Incorporated: 1931 as Boise Payette Lumber Company
Employees: 23,039
Sales: $6.16 billion (1998)
Stock Exchanges: New York Midwest
Ticker Symbol: BCC
NAIC: 113110 Timber Tract Operations; 113310 Logging; 321113 Sawmills; 321210 Veneer, Plywood, and Engineered Wood Product Manufacturing; 322100 Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills; 322211 Corru-gated and Solid Fiber Box Manufacturing; 322230 Stationery Product Manufacturing; 421310 Lumber, Plywood, Millwork, and Wood Panel Wholesalers; 421330 Roofing, Siding, and Insulation Material Wholesalers; 421390 Other Construction Material Wholesalers; 453210 Office Supplies and Stationery Stores; 454110 Electronic Shopping and Mail-Order Houses; 454390 Other Direct Selling Establishments
Key Dates:
1902: Cascade Lumber Company of Yakima, Washington, is founded.
1931: Boise Payette Lumber Company is founded.
1957: Boise Cascade Corporation is created through the merger of Boise Payette Lumber and Cascade Lumber.
1958: The company's first pulp and paper mill and first corrugated container plants are built.
1964: Boise Cascade enters the office products distribution business.
1969: Diversification program results in various activities, including land development, recreational vehicle production, and cruise management.
1972: John Fery takes the helm, focusing the company on core areas: paper, building products, and office products distribution.
1987: Company sells its consumer packaging division.
1990: Recession hits Boise Cascade hard.
1992: Wholesale segment of office products distribution business is sold.
1994: Paper division begins three-year refocusing, with five paper mills sold or shut down.
1995: Company sells minority stake in Boise Cascade Office Product Corporation, retaining an 82.7 percent interest.
1999: Billerica, Massachusetts-based Furman Lumber, Inc., is acquired and merged into the company's wholesale building products unit.
KEY EXECUTIVES
Mr. Thomas E. Carlile
Chief Executive Officer and Director
Age: 58
Mr. Nathan David Leight
Executive Officer
Age: 51
Mr. Wayne M. Rancourt
Chief Financial Officer
Age: 47
Mr. Thomas A. Lovlien
President of Wood Products Manufacturing
Age: 54
Mr. Stanley R. Bell
President of Building Materials Distribution
Age: 63
Address:
1111 West Jefferson Street
P.O. Box 50
Boise, Idaho 83728-0001
U.S.A.