September 2024 Message from our CEO

As you read this, Columbia Forest Products and over 6,300 other Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) companies across the United States are enjoying the powerful advantages of a business owned and managed by its employees.

October is “Employee Ownership Month,” so it’s an excellent time to discuss this topic and why it’s such a great structure for Columbia’s employee-owners AND our customers.

Columbia’s ESOP was initiated in 1976 when our founder, Andy Honzel, and other owners sold the Columbia Plywood Corporation to its employees and changed the name to Columbia Forest Products.

Forty-eight years later, the company has become the organization you know today.  

Our employee ownership status assures an open, honest and transparent environment where teammates can feel and behave like family.  

We’re uniquely committed to each other’s success and support each other as we jointly focus on our customers’ success.

We also want our communities to succeed and strive to do the right things for the natural resource pool we draw from and the areas where we work and live. 

Our ESOP structure has proven to be a real advantage in maintaining job satisfaction, tenure and recruitment in an environment where attracting and keeping great people is getting tougher daily.

Managing an employee-owned organization in many ways keeps us mindful of the fundamentals. It forces us to think and act for the long term.

We want our newest employee-owners to envision a future with a Columbia that will last and grow for decades. So, we make decisions and take actions that align with a sustainable success path into the future. 

We’re in this for the very long term, and it’s a factor that we emphasize with our suppliers and customers whose relationships we want to last a long time as well! I thank all of you for the support and business we enjoy.

Greg Pray

President and CEO

Columbia Forest Products

Our Core Values

Customer Service

Absolute Integrity

We are Family

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