Sector Focus: Panel Products | 45
SUMMARY
■The MEDITE factory in Clonmel started production on September 28, 1983
■Its origins lie with Medford Corporation in Oregon, US
■In the late 1970s the Irish government was looking for uses for pulpwood and for sawmill by- products
■Full annualised production of 150,000m3
first year of operation IRELAND BOUND
Geoff Rhodes, independent consultant and former long-serving marketing and sales director at MEDITE looks back 40 years to Medford Corporation’s multi-million dollar investment in the Clonmel factory
This overview sets the scene of what was to become one of the most significant investments in European panel product manufacturing – the US$50m MDF plant in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, Ireland, which started production on September 28, 1983. Sometime prior to 1910, Henry F Chaney arrived by train in Eugene, Oregon, bought a horse and then rode off into the timber- rich territory of south-west Oregon looking for potential timberland acquisitions for his family.
Mr Chaney subsequently became the vice-president for west coast affairs of Baker Fentress and Company. Baker Fentress was
a banking house in Chicago that pioneered timber-secured bonds after the turn of the century. Between 1909 and 1927 it assumed nearly US$100m-worth of bonds for almost 100 major lumber companies.
Calvin Fentress started at the firm in 1902 eventually becoming the president and in 1920 the firm’s name was changed to Baker Fentress and Company. Medford Corporation was a successor company to one of the Baker Fentress financed lumber companies that failed during the 1920s. It formed a bond holders committee to exchange the bonds for stock in the new company – Medford Corporation (Medco).
By 1979, Medco had become a medium- sized forest products company with sales over US$125m, more than 2,000 employees, and a very strong balance sheet. Wood chip exports to Japan through Marubeni Corporation, Lumber and Plywood production and secondary manufacturing of panel products, including MDF, were all part of the commercial mix.
Its real financial strength was in part due to its significant timber holdings, which were carried on the books at original cost as low as US$1/thousand board feet when current market value was as high as US$300/ thousand board feet. ►
was achieved within the
Above: One of Seaboard’s bulk carriers (FARO - 30,000 tonnes) coming up the Thames to Tilbury, having sailed from Vancouver, down the west coast of the US, through the Panama Canal and then right across the Atlantic to bring cargo (including MEDITE MDF) to an awaiting market place. A voyage of almost four weeks
www.ttjonline.com | November/December 2023 | TTJ
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