May 24 that its entire forestry — will have to approve the conditions or call division is being offered for sale. Bell said Westar will honour its of any sale that takes place, has In addition to the Hazelton-Kit- employment commitments for the been informed that the forest divi- 1-403-478-0298 tee te mmc A BA Rc Ad Terrace Review — Wednesday, May 29, 1991 Westar mills to continue to — run as company seeks buyer ‘The Westar sawmilling and log- ging operations in Kitwanga and Hazelton will continue to run while the company tries to sell them, Westar's chief executive officer Larry Bell said Monday. The Westar group announced wanga operation, Westar also has sawmills in Vanderhoof, Castlegar and Malakwa, a smali community 20 kilometres west of Revelstoke. If the forestry assets are sold, Westar would be left with only its two coal mines in southeastern B.C. and the Roberts: Bank bulk commodity shipping terminal south _ of Vancouver. The company says it decided to sell the forestry division to reduce debt. "It will be sold as a going con- cer," Bell said of Westar’s north- west operations. The company has a high-tech sawmill and whole-log chipper at Carnaby near Hazelton and an older mil! at Kitwanga. The manufacturing operations are attached to two forest tenures, a replaceable forest licence in the Kispiox Timber supply Area with an Annual Allowable Cut of 607,000 cubic metres and a Tree Farm License with an AAC of 104,000 cubic metres north of Kitwanga. Bell said Westar does not issue public accounts that segregate the financial performance of individual mills, but he thinks the two saw- mills "may have greater value in the hands of others". , "As we move toward more effi- ciency, manufacturers tend to specialize in lumber size and spe- cies," he explained. That trend works to the advantage of large forest companies that have a var- iety of mill types and can trade logs internally from several ten- ures. For Westar, wood chips are also a problem — 60 percent of two northwest tenures. is pulp, which has to be chipped and sold to pulp mills. Bell said an inte- grated company that uses chips within its own operations could "internalize the supply and demand". Kitwanga mill, which was shut down due to timber shortage from May 1990 to February 1991. Em- ploying workers in Kitwanga is a condition of Westar’s forest licences, but keeping the mill going is costing the company — Bell said timber is being brought in from as far away as Alberta to supply the operation. "It’s getting expensive," he remarked. Westar’s timber marketing divi- sion, which handles timber sales for ihe Skeena Cellulose mill in Terrace, will also be sold, Bell said. There have been some recent changes to the marketing organiz- ation, with sales people being directly attached to the manufac- turing plants. Camaby, Bell said, now has four marketing people assigned to it. "There have been some improvements, but to some extent we're still manufacturing according to the log rather than what the market demands,” he said. Westar’s marketing arm has been a leader in opening up European and Pacific Rim sales of B.C. timber and has received awards for its innovative approach to offshore sales of wood products. Bell said other forest companies were valued a $6. The shares now trade at less than a dollar. Westar’s sales for fiscal 1990, according to the May 24 announcement, were $243.5 million. Oe The Ministry of Forests, which ‘sion is on the block, Bell said. That is one reason he doesn’t expect a sale to be complete until late this year. — _ "No sale will take place unless an appropriate price can be obtained for the assets," the May 24 announcement stated. have expressed interest in buying — | the Westar operations but he couldn’t respond to any questions on the subject because Westar is a publicly traded company. Westar was originally formed in 1984 as a. number of separate resource operations rolled together by the Bemett government under the B.C. Resources Investment Corporation. Shares were issued to 90,000 Km WANTED: - “Rent-to-own Contact: _C. Umphrey - #683 — 10760 149th Ave. Edmonton, Alberta T5E 2M8 — ~ Have $20,000 deposit, looking for small, — profitable business, preferably grocery. ‘For. a family, must include living accommodation — and be close to schools. ; OUR LOWEST PRICE _ the overall timber profile on its everyone in B.C. 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