A freshstart: when a fire burned family-owned P.M. Lemay's SPF mill in the spring of 2001, the Quebec company took some time to weigh its options, and came back stronger than ever

摘要

Rebuilding a mill after fire is never easy. When you're a small independent family mill with limited access to capital and facing some of the toughest markets in years, it's harder still. Yet that's exactly what Regis Lemay and son Mario accomplishedwith the August 2002 startup of a simple, optimized single-line sawmill. Scierie P.H. Lemay is a family-owned and operated softwood lumber manufacturer with its head office in St-Francois-de-Sales; the new mill is in L' Ascension. These two small townsare in the hardworking Lac St. Jean region of Quebec. Founded in 1945 by Honorat Lemay, the restructured company is owned by his son Regis along with Cascades Inc., a Quebec-based pulp and paper company that took a financial stake after the fire to helpwith the rebuild. Regis' son Mario has a hands-on role in helping to run the new mill, while other family members remain involved.