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84 Lumber trims rare woods
Friday, August 25, 2000 By Stephanie Franken, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
84 Lumber Company announced plans to phase out sales of all products from endangered forests by the end of 2003.
The company, which recorded sales of $1.8 billion in 1999 and operates 406 stores nationwide, said the vast majority of its wood supply does not come from endangered forests. To phase out all remaining sales of supplies from endangered areas, the company will use independent certification systems to verify that wood comes from well-managed forests.
Many of the company's suppliers already have implemented these third-party certification systems. "We strongly believe that practicing sound forest management is the responsibility of producers, distributors, and ultimately consumers," said 84 Lumber Company President Maggie Hardy Magerko.
Most nationwide lumber companies do "very small" amounts of business with suppliers that sell wood from endangered forests, according to Brian Postol, a lumber industry analyst with the brokerage A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. "I know everybody is making an attempt lately to distance themselves politically" from the companies that supply lumber from threatened areas.
Smaller local lumber companies may not know if their wood comes from endangered forests, according to HOP lumber spokeswoman Karen Liepold. HOP, which operates two local stores, has sales of about $1.4 million. "Generally, we don't buy directly from mills, so we don't know where the wood comes from," she said.
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