SEELEY LAKE — Pyramid Mountain Lumber in Seeley Lake provided an update Friday afternoon regarding the shutdown of its mill operations.
In the press release, it said the operations at the sawmill itself will continue until the last week of June or by the 4th of July. After that, the current inventory of logs will be depleted but production through the planner and other processes is not expected to fully wrap up until mid-August. Shipping will continue through September. After this, the mill would be set up for auction.
In mid-August, the first large layoff will occur. To date, only three employees have been laid off, but several others have already left the mill in anticipation of the layoffs.
Currently, Pyramid Mountain Lumber is in talks with three parties with hopes that the mill will be sold to one of them. No offers are on the table currently but Pyramid remains “hopeful that one of those parties can make something work.”
If the mill is sold, there would be several challenges that the new owners would face.
First, with their current schedule to wind down operations, they are not taking in any more logs and there would be a lapse in production by the time the mill is potentially sold. The new owners would have to purchase logs for up to two months without being able to make a sale.
With this, there would also be the difficulty of hiring employees back as it takes time to replace the log inventory and bring in revenue. On top of the difficulty hiring, 40% of the mills current workforce is 58 or older, pushing many at this time into retirement.
Second, the new operation would have to run the mill more efficiently and with less employees to be profitable, something that has eluded Pyramid Mountain Lumber to date.
Finally, the new owners would have to invest a large amount into updating the current infrastructure within the mill. They would have to purchase, build, or re-tool equipment.
According to the press release from Pyramid Mountain Lumber, Missoula County stated that they would work with the new ownership to transfer existing permits - which would greatly help overcome a major hurdle to the purchase of the mill. On top of that, the county also stated that they would expedite building permits for the new owners.
While Pyramid Mountain Lumber originally gave a deadline of May 15th for potential buyers, they are still willing to accept any offers that may come their way.
The mill stated that they would like to thank the community of Seeley Lake for their continued support as they move forward with the winding down of production.
In their press release, Pyramid Mountain Lumber concluded by stating “We are all hopeful that there is a future for some sort of operations under new ownership at the mill, but only time will tell.”
