By TOM KELLY
Editor and Publisher

After months of struggling to find its footing in a down U.S. lumber market, PBS Lumber of Winnfield has new partners, an infusion of new capital, and plans for expansion to double lumber production and increase local employment.

The new corporate organization is PBS Lumber Manufacturing, LLC, formed by Freestone Sawmill Partners, LP, of Houston, Texas to acquire the sawmill assets of the PBS Lumber Manufacturing, Inc. PBS founders and former owners Jimmy Price, Kiah Beville, and Sammy Smith received shares in Freestone Partners, Ltd., and will remain as partners and active participants in the ongoing operation.

The Freestone management team includes Rick Wilson as managing director of operations; Art Dawson, managing director of administration; Anna Jarowicz, green side manager; Erik Nemeck, dry side manager; and Danny Lefsrud, maintenance supervisor

The former PBS owners will be active in administration, procurement, and marketing.

No interruption of production is anticipated during the capital improvements, the company said in a news release.

Each of the new operating team members is experienced in lumber manufacture in a variety of professional backgrounds. They will be residents of the local area, and "will be in the mill every day," said operations manager Rick Wilson.

Wilson said in an interview after the Freestate acquisition that the new company plans to double production at PBS in Winnfield, resulting in additional employment in logging, manufacturing, and construction, and related activities. Production increase from the present level of 50 to 60 million, up to 100 million board feet per year will come from expansion and upgrading of the already modern mill, which has seen investment of $4 million over the past four years

The new company plans to invest up to $3 million on expansion during the first year, with another $2 million in the second year.\par }{\plain Wilson said, "PBS is a very good mill to build on. We have the available capital and the sawmill expertise to take it to the next level."

Wilson said he and the Freestone team are confident of meeting their goals of productivity and profitability. In spite of tough market conditions in the U.S. today, he said, "Sawmills run well can make a nice profit."

In a recently published professional paper titled, "This is Not Your Father's Sawmill," Wilson wrote, "Today's sawmill managers learned in a different sawmill world than what exists today. Some are making decisions based on what it was like when they were an operator, or shift supervisor, or superintendent. Not only has memory faded, it is a memory of a different time."

Both Wilson and PBS founder Sammy Smith, agreed the new arrangement is a positive step for the local community. Wilson said "We value very much that they (Price, Beville, and Smith) are staying as part of the new organization. It will make a powerful team."

Wilson is a graduate of Ruston, Louisiana High School. His father, Joe Wilson, a native of Colfax in Grant Parish, Louisiana, is a retired engineering professor at Louisiana Tech. After high school, Rick Wilson enrolled at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD, and served a stint in the Navy before entering the wood products manufacturing business. His career includes a total of 20-plus years with Proctor & Gamble wood manufacturing operations, Weyerhaeuser, and Louisiana Pacific, plus professional consulting in engineering and sawmill operations. His work includes six years in Northern Alberta, Canada, and various positions in the United States.

Freestone Sawmill Partners LP, is actively pursuing the purchase of one or more additional mills, Wilson said.

PBS in Winnfield was founded in 1983 as a marketing company for the L.L. Brewton Lumber's treated wood products.

"All three of us worked for Crown Zellerbach," partner Kiah Beville said in a 1999 Piney Woods Journal interview. "Jimmie Price and I were working in Crown Z's office in Bogalusa selling lumber and Sammy Smith was with Crown Z at the Tremont plant at Joyce in purchasing and production. At the time, we thought we saw a niche in the market place because a lot of production of one inch lumber was leaving the area. In late 1983 and early 1984, we were able to begin marketing L.L. Brewton's treated material."

"We started out on a very low budget with used equipment which gave us a very primitive lumber remanufacturing operation," Beville noted. "With the Lord's blessing and a lot of dedication and hard work we were able in 1990 to go from a log to finish lumber operation."

"Jimmy and I both left Crown Z during the winter of `83-`84 and moved back to our hometown of Winnfield," Beville said. "While Jimmie and I handled sales for L.L. Brewton in early 1984, Sammy was able to get our planer mill up and going in November of 1984 with 12 employees. By the spring of 1985, we were able to start construction of our own sawmill," Beville said. "During our early years, we basically added value to lumber that was not a high end use material that we bought from surrounding mills."

"We went to double shifts last August,(1998)" Beville said. "We have 28 people per shift and are always looking for good entry level people that we can train for our lumber manufacturing operations."

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