Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
Western Forest Products
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
2004-
History
Western Forest Products Incorporated is a major harvesting and lumber manufacturing company operating in the coastal regions of British Columbia. In 1980, a joint venture of three B.C.-based companies, Doman Industries Ltd., Whonnock Industries Ltd., and British Columbia Forest Products Ltd. acquired the B.C. holdings of Rayonier Canada Limited. The three companies, with equal shares, organized Western Forest Products Limited (WFP) as the purchaser. By 1992, WFP was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Doman Industries Limited, but in 2004, Doman restructured and Western Forest Product Inc. was formally established as its successor.
WFP continued their expansion in 2006 with the purchase of Englewood Logging Division and Cascadia Forest Products. At the time, Cascadia was an integrated lumber producer and the largest Crown tenure holder of coastal British Columbia. Western Forest then went through a number of major restructuring activities in the late 2000s, including the amalgamation with their subsidiaries, WFP Western Lumber Ltd., Western Pulp Ltd., and Mid-Island Reman Inc.; the closing of New Westminster sawmill in 2007; and the integration of timberlands operations of Duncan and Campbell River to its Vancouver and Nanaimo offices.
As of 2016, Western Forest Products consists of acquisitions from a variety of other forestry companies such as MacMillan Bloedel, Weyerhaeuser, Canadian Pacific, and Canfor. The land acquisitions of Western Forest Products stretch from the lower mainland to the northern coast of British Columbia, making it the largest investment company in Coastal manufacturing with currently nine milling facilities located in Nanaimo, Cowichan Bay, Ladysmith, Chemainus, and Port Alberni. The principal activities conducted by WFP and its subsidiaries include timber harvesting, reforestation, sawmilling logs into lumber and wood chips, and value-added remanufacturing.