Governor Paul LePage (left), along with MWPA Executive Director Bob MacGregor (right), present the Pine Tree Award to Denis Carrier, president of Kennebec Lumber Company, during a dinner on Jan. 19.
Kennebec Lumber Company (Solon, Maine) has been awarded the Pine Tree Award by the Maine Wood Products Association. The award is presented annually to a Maine-based wood products manufacturing company that has taken innovative steps in the past two years to strengthen its business. Kennebec Lumber Company is owned by the Carrier family and operates a hardwood lumber sawmill in Solon, where it processes hardwood logs into kiln-dried lumber and hardwood flooring.
Kennebec received the award primarily for its efforts to expand its operations in Solon. Previously, the company shipped sawn and dried lumber to a sister facility in Quebec where the lumber was manufactured into solid wood flooring, most of which was shipped back to the U.S. market. That all changed, however, in 2011 with the opening of the Solon flooring facility. On average, the company's wood flooring program expanded 35 percent in 2008 and 2009; in 2010 the program expanded 45 percent. The company's expansion resulted in the creation of about 20 new jobs in the Solon area.
"While there has been a trend of consolidation and shutdowns in our industry statewide and beyond, through careful planning and growth, the Carrier family has quietly become a major player in the U.S. solid wood flooring industry," said MWPA Executive Director Bob MacGregor.
