Idaho lumber mills to merge

Riley Creek Lumber Co. and Bennett Forest Products Co. will merge this fall, a move that will help the two family firms remain viable during one of the worst lumber markets in history, officials said Wednesday.

About 550 people will work at the combined company, which will operate four sawmills in North Idaho. The mills will produce nearly 1 billion board feet of lumber annually.

“It opens up markets that we weren’t getting into before,” said Dick Bennett, whose family owns Bennett Forest Products Co.

Both firms want to sell to Home Depot, Lowe’s and other retail lumber yards. But Bennett Forest Products, by itself, wasn’t a large enough producer. Riley Creek was just barely so, according to Bennett.

Retail lumber markets are steadier and more stable than the home construction industry, which has dropped off dramatically as a result of the mortgage lending crisis and the national downturn in home sales, Bennett said.

Retail markets sell to “people who want to build a fence or an addition,” he said. “They will be there in good markets as well as bad.”

The two family-owned firms have other synergies as well. Both companies have invested heavily in keeping their sawmills modern and efficient. And Bennett and Marc Brinkmeyer, Riley Creek’s owner, have been friends for 35 years.

Brinkmeyer often told Bennett he was going to hire away Bennett’s grandson, 39-year-old Scott Atkison, who runs Bennett Forest Products’ Grangeville sawmill. Eventually, they worked out the merger plan.

The merger will be completed by Sept. 1. Atkison will be in charge of day-to-day operations as president and CEO. Brinkmeyer will be chairman of the board. Bennett will be a board member.

The parties are still mulling a name for the new company, whose sawmills are located in Grangeville, Chilco, Laclede and Moyie Springs. Bennett-Riley Lumber Co. was discussed but dismissed.

“That’s just a little too long to put on the end of a board,” Bennett said.