Rising plywood prices fuel tribe’s good fortune- Colvilles turn defunct mill into job generator with big payroll

During its short history, Colville Indian Power and Veneer has received two timely breaks.

Becky Kramer
Staff writer

The first was Lou Toulou, the plant’s general manager. Toulou just happened to retire on the reservation after 40 years of running plywood plants for Georgia-Pacific.

"We knew we had a tribal member with plywood experience," said Joe Pakootas, chairman of the business council for the Colville Confederated Tribe. "He sent his resume in, letting us know that he would help us out."

The second break was plywood prices.

The Omak, Wash., mill reopened in June, just as plywood began a price surge that has lasted throughout the summer and into the fall. Plywood prices have doubled over the past 12 months because of a strong housing market, low inventory and military orders for plywood to rebuild Iraq.

"We hit it at the best time you could possibly hit it," said Toulou, who managed five mills for Georgia-Pacific, primarily in the South. "The market right now is going great, and I don’t see a downturn anytime soon. We have production sold through November."

Two years ago, the Colville Tribal Enterprise Corp. bought the closed plywood plant in a bankruptcy sale. The tribe has spent nearly $20million on the purchase, cleanup and upgrade of the aging mill, according to Pakootas.

"We’ve got more people working there than when it closed," he said. "We hope the market stays stable, because we’ve got a pretty good investment in the plant."

About 200 people work at the plywood plant, and annual payroll is projected at $3.2 million. More than 60 percent of the workers are tribal members, and the rest were hired locally.

The mill is on the Colville Indian Reservation. When the previous owners filed for bankruptcy, the tribe saw the potential for creating jobs. In addition to the plywood plant, the site contains 300-plus acres that could become a business or industrial park.

"There’s a lot of potential for future development," said Eddie Palmanteer, Colville Tribal Enterprise Corp. president. "We work with other economic development agencies to do what we can to help maintain the economy."

Initially, the mill’s business plan called for manufacturing green veneer and generating power for the plant by burning wood waste, Palmanteer said. That was during the spring of 2001, when electricity prices were soaring. As the prices dropped, the business plan was revamped to focus on plywood, he said. However, the mill still generates enough electricity to power itself, a sawmill owned by the tribe and a tribal casino. Excess electricity is sold to the Okanogan Public Utility District, Palmanteer said.

•Business writer Becky Kramer can be reached at (208) 765-7122 or at [email protected].

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