Sawmill Manager - Western Forest Products
(Management & Executives)
Full Time
Vancouver Island / Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
Western Forest Products is a diversified wood products company that sustainably manages forests and manufactures high-quality wood products on the coast of British Columbia. It has a high performing senior leadership team, is well financed, and is positioning itself for significant growth as a sustainable and globally competitive forest products company. Unlike its competitors that are high-volume, low-cost producers, Western is a margin-focused company deriving the majority of its sales from speciality wood products. As the largest Crown timber tenure holder in Coastal BC, Western has a superior timber asset base and secure fibre supply as well as high-value, diverse products that serve global markets. Western has approximately 2000 employees, annual revenues $1+ billion, and access to 6.1 million cubic metres of annual harvest. It operates eight flexible milling facilities on the coast.
WFP offers a “forest” of products in a variety of sizes and standards — including products for remanufacture and custom applications. Quality fibre from five coastal BC tree species is used for product lines of Western Red Cedar, Douglas fir, Hem-Fir, Yellow Cedar and Sitka Spruce. WFP’s annual allowable cut is approximately 6.1 million cubic metres and the company purchases an additional approximate 1.7 million cubic metres of log externally. Approximately 66% of logs are processed at WFP manufacturing facilities and the remaining 34% is sold externally to other domestic, export and pulp log markets.
Due to a retirement within the organization, WFP is now seeking a new Sawmill Manager to lead the Duke Point manufacturing operation on Vancouver Island. Having recently been restarted, the mill has undergone significant capital investments and now has tremendous capacity and potential to drive the broader business forward. The mill currently employs more than 140 individuals producing 120 million board feet of Hemlock, Douglas fir and Western Red Cedar per annum.
Reporting to the General Manager, Manufacturing, the Sawmill Manager plays a senior and critical role in the business. With a focus on worker safety and continuous improvement, the Sawmill Manager supports the Company’s goals and objectives to drive optimum efficiency, economy of the operation, and maximize profits. The Sawmill Manager is responsible for examining operational procedures to identify operational inefficiencies and implement changes as necessary.
The ideal candidate will be a manufacturing professional with superior business acumen who brings parallel mill leadership experience within the forestry industry. She/he will have exceptional leadership capabilities and be skillful managing profit margins. A self-starter and driver with a results-oriented approach, the preferred candidate will enjoy working closely with all aspects of the business in this exciting and changing environment.
This is a stimulating mandate for a manufacturing leader excited by the opportunity to lead the business operations of an important mill with significant capital investments and a bright future. This role is located on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, based in or around the Nanaimo area.