Advertisement
Webster Industries had about 240 employees at the Bangor and Blair operations before the sales, company President Dave Larson said Thursday. About 25 jobs were eliminated as a result of the sales, he said.
Larson, now president of the new Webster Hardwoods, said it will have about 175 employees near Bangor and at Blair. Webster Hardwoods mainly will produce hardwood lumber for sale to distributors and manufacturers of furniture, cabinets, moulding and millwork; and will produce and sell untreated railway ties to Stella-Jones Corp.
Stella-Jones Corp., the new U.S. subsidiary of Canadian firm Stella-Jones Inc., will have about 40 employees at its rural Bangor facility, said George Labelle, senior vice president and chief financial officer of the Canadian firm. Its Bangor facility will buy wood railway ties from Webster Hardwoods and other companies, and treat them with oil and creosote, an insecticide that prevents damage by insects and rot.
"Both operations are a little smaller as separate operations," Labelle said, explaining why about 25 jobs were eliminated. "There were some redundancies."
Stella-Jones mainly operates on the north side of Hwy. U east of Bangor, and Webster Hardwoods mainly operates on the south side.
Stella-Jones Inc., a publicly traded company based in Westmount, Quebec, said it paid $16 million in U.S. dollars. Larson declined to say how much the Webster management team paid for the rest of the Bangor and Blair operations.
The operations were sold by Paul Webster III of Wayzata, Minn., who was the fourth generation of the family to own the company.
Company chronology
1902: Founder Henry Webster incorporates Webster Lumber Co. in Minneapolis.
1983: The company's headquarters move from Wayzata to rural Bangor, where it had a sawmill.
2004: Webster Industries sells its Westby, Wis., facility, which makes mouldings and millwork products, to John Sapaula, who had worked in the company's marketing department. He operates it today as Westby Moulding and Millwork Co.
Aug. 31, 2005: A U.S. subsidiary of Canadian firm Stella-Jones Inc. buys the pressure-treated wood railway tie operation near Bangor, and a Webster management team buys the rest of the Bangor and Blair operations and renames it Webster Hardwoods.
Steve Cahalan can be reached at (608) 791-8229 or scahalan@lacrossetribune.com.
