MISSOULA — Roseburg Forest Products will be shutting down its Missoula facility in several weeks. The company announced this week that it "will permanently end operations" at the particleboard plant on May 22, 2024, leaving scores of employees without jobs.
A news release from the Oregon-based company states: "The closure is the final step in the company’s strategic plan to exit the particleboard manufacturing business and focus resources on other product segments, including MDF, engineered wood, plywood, and lumber."
According to the company website, the plant has been running since 1969. Roseburg purchased the Missoula plant in 2003.
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“The decision to permanently close a plant is always difficult. It is especially difficult with our Missoula operation as we complete our exit from the particleboard marketplace,” Roseburg’s President and CEO Stuart Gray said. “Unfortunately, Missoula’s older platform and technology is simply not competitive from a cost structure perspective in a marketplace with many new, modern particleboard facilities."
“We know this closure will have a significant impact on our team members there, and thus, our primary objective with this closure is to assist them through this transition as smoothly as possible,” Gray said. "The plant currently employs approximately 150 team members. Roseburg will work closely with local resources to assist affected team members as the closure date approaches."
Montana Wood Products Association director Julia Altemus stated that "there's been better days" and "we're still processing the closure and it's hard to say what the impacts will be."
The news comes just days after the announcement that Pyramid Mountain Lumber in Seeley Lake is closing.
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