Groupe Savoie To Increase Pallet Wood Production In the East Coast

Groupe Savoie, a family-owned sawmill processing enterprise, wants to expand their pallet wood processing for 2023. The East Coast-based business is committed to modernizing its logging production this year in an effort to reduce its impact on the environment and promote green technology and processing. Groupe Savoie is also encouraging other sawmill businesses to transition to environmentally-friendly pallet development for a greener Atlantic Canada.

Since 1978, the company has been a reputable producer of hardwood products including pallets, lumber, tonewood, and wood chips. Hector Savoie and his son Jean Claude developed Groupe Savoie in Saint-Quentin, N.B., as a vertically integrated corporation that harvests and acquires wood, then optimally processes it and transforms it into high-quality hardwood products. Today, the father-and-son-led business retains over 600 employees working at their New Brunswick and Nova Scotia sawmills. Employees support and manage their sawmills, pallets, recycling factories, pellet plants, and dry kilns.

Pallet Wood Owners Are Dominating the Industry

With one key objective in mind: to change the way customers think about purchasing hardwood products, Groupe Savoie focuses on end-to-end wood services for innovative manufacturing. The enterprise produces 80 million FBM of hardwood lumber a year and over two million wood pallets annually. In addition, their component production plants are consistently supplied kiln-dried hardwood from 12 modern kilns which allows access to advanced production capacity.

Although Groupe Savoie utilizes innovative technologies to develop their wood resources to reduce their environmental impact, the company struggles with convincing Maritime landowners to invest in harvesting pallet wood. “Pallet wood makes up 50 percent of our total deliveries each year,” says Jody Hamper, procurement manager at Groupe Savoie’s Westville, N.S. location. “It keeps the mill running here in Westville but that value stream is not being maximized.”Both local and commercial pallet owners actually bring more revenue to the supplier than log owners. It’s also one of the most effective processes that Groupe Savoie uses to reduce its environmental impact.

Greener Processes for a Cleaner Maritimes

With deep Atlantic Canadian roots, the enterprise is committed to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) regulations and is certified by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). “I think by having these certifications it shows the standards and the accountability that we hold ourselves to,” explains Hamper. “And when people see the standards we hold ourselves to, I hope it shows the extra steps and extra care that we’re taking to ensure we do right by everyone.”

Groupe Savoie is also one of the first businesses to implement a full-scale hardwood processing mechanism that utilizes every part of the tree from the bark to the woodchips and sawdust. The company strives to apply efficient forest management practices in all that they do to avoid waste and maximize recovery of any fibre.