By Greg Skinner, for Peninsula Daily News
FORKS –– Interfor Pacific Inc. has agreed to purchase Portac Inc.’s lumber mills in Forks and Beaver for $28.25 million in a deal expected to be complete by the end of September.
No major work force changes — such as layoffs — are planned because of the purchase, said Rick Slaco, vice president and chief forester of Canadian-based International Forest Products Ltd., known as Interfor.
The mills — a planer mill in Forks and a sawmill on Lake Pleasant north of Forks in Beaver — will continue to operate on an already reduced schedule, he said.
Both mills had cut back to one shift from two on April 28, with some layoffs, said Mike House, a supervisor at the Forks planer mill.
He did not know the specific numbers of layoffs, he said, referring questions to Jim Woodward, planer mill supervisor, who was not available for comment on Friday and Saturday.
The two mills once employed 109 people between them.
Because of a depressed lumber market, the Portac mills ran off-and-on schedules in the spring, idling workers for weeks at a time.
Portac employees referred all questions about the sale to Gary Takahashi, Portac president.
Takahashi did not return multiple phone calls Friday seeking comment about the sale.
