Interfor's acquisition of EACOM is complete.
The Burnaby, B.C.-headquartered forestry company has announced that the $490-million transaction, which was first disclosed last fall, concluded on Feb. 22.
In Northern Ontario, EACOM owns sawmills in Ear Falls, Elk Lake, Gogama, Nairn Centre, and Timmins, along with an engineered wood plant in Sault Ste. Marie.
The company owns additional assets in Quebec.
At the time of the announcement, Interfor said purchasing EACOM would enable it to increase its total lumber production capacity by 25 per cent, and help the company grow its presence in eastern Canada.
Montreal-headquartered EACOM operates seven sawmills with a combined annual spruce-pine-fir (SPF) lumber production capacity of 985 million board feet; an I-Joist plant with annual production capacity of 70 million linear feet; a value-added remanufacturing plant with annual production capacity of 60 million board feet; and rights to access approximately 3.6 million cubic meters per year of responsibly managed and internationally certified fibre supply.
Interfor earlier said the EACOM assets would operate under the Interfor banner, but the company will maintain its “key operating leadership and employees” as well as its Montreal office.
Following the transaction, Éric Larouche has been appointed as senior-vice president of eastern operations and will be responsible for Interfor’s manufacturing, woodlands and forestry activities in Eastern Canada.
Larouche has more than 20 years of experience in the forest products industry in both Canada and the United States, and was previously EACOM’s vice-president of human resources.
