TimberBuySell.com, a new Web-based business launched this week by the Montana Community Development Corp., purports to be the first online clearinghouse for forest resources throughout North America.
It's essentially a matchmaking service for buyers and sellers of various forest resources - except it doesn't charge a transaction fee, explained Craig Rawlings, director of the new enterprise. The site allows forest-product businesses to create, post and update notices to buy or sell whatever they're in need of at the moment.
The Web site is a virtual marketplace, for sure, but it's also a meeting place where industry workers can exchange news, share advice and forge new relationships, said Rosalie Cates, executive director of the Missoula-based nonprofit MCDC.
“We think we'll end up building just a big community out there,” Rawlings said.
Their aim is to improve communication within the industry. Effective, efficient communication saves time, and as everyone knows, time is money.
Although many of the larger local players already know each other, the site serves as a standing invitation for smaller businesses and private landowners who might not otherwise enter the market, Rawlings said. Many of these folks are looking for a one-time transaction, and don't have the experience to know who to call or what to look for.
The idea for TimberBuySell.com started taking shape about two years ago, when Rawlings and Cates began to uncover the potential for their project through an online newsletter Rawlings launched for MCDC's Smallwood Utilization Network.
In its four years, the newsletter has grown quickly. It now counts 2,500 subscribers scattered across the country, Rawlings said.
“It was amazing the amount of traffic we got from that,” he said. “The newsletter is just growing and growing.”
Indeed, a mounting number of potential buyers and sellers kept contacting Rawlings to request notices in the newsletter. One forester for the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada even managed to sell 70,000 tons of chipped juniper via the newsletter, Rawlings noted.
He and Cates realized an Internet site devoted solely to such notices would be a boon to the industry. They organized a board of directors with deep roots in forest resources, and hired an Internet marketing specialist. TimberBuySell.com is set up as a self-supporting endeavor; its revenue is generated entirely through ads.
“It's really interesting running an Internet business,” Cates said. “You don't just put the site on the Web and wait for the checks to come in.”
Really, the only difference between a Web site and a physical location is that the virtual world is open 24/7, Rawlings said.
Web-savvy businesses can create their own ads themselves, but Rawlings doesn't mind walking people through the process on the phone or in person.
“I don't see us ever not having customer service that can be accessed over the phone,” he said. “I see that going on forever. We want that interaction with the community.”
That “community,” both local and far-flung, appears to be taking note and signing on. Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. in Frenchtown, for one, had posted a number of notices advertising a variety of needs and services, from help with thinning projects to hog fuel.
The pulp mill saves money by using hog fuel to feed its boiler, explained Mike Atwood, a procurement forester for Smurfit-Stone. In fact, the mill could use residual forest waste to cover about 75 percent of its energy costs, he said.
“The landowners like it because it removes about
90 percent of the slash debris,” Atwood noted. “It's certainly a better alternative to burning slash piles.”
Smurfit-Stone is trying to attract more private landowners close to its Frenchtown location, he said. It's just not economically feasible to haul from farther away.
The timber industry is, in fact, a location-based industry. Any cost savings associated with buying forest resources have to take into account the expense of shipping all that material from one place to another, noted Ironwood Manufacturing Inc. president Brandon Knudson.
Ironwood is a Missoula corporation that makes school and office furniture for sale throughout the nation - and it's increasingly competing in a global economy, Knudson said. Therefore, it's constantly searching for ways to maintain a competitive edge, and one of those ways is to reduce costs.
And one of those costs is waste disposal. Ironwood already grinds its particleboard waste to reduce the total volume needing disposal, but it's a shame to pay someone to haul material to the landfill when there's an eager local market for it.
“There's people out there in the market that need wood refuse as their main raw material,” he said.
Knudson's problem is reaching that market. He makes furniture, so he looks first and foremost for people buying furniture - not wood waste. He hopes that TimberBuySell.com will help him reach those buyers he simply doesn't have the time and resources to solicit himself.
“What makes the TimberBuySell Web site unique is it allows me an avenue to market some of our byproducts without having to go out and find locally who would be interested,” Knudson said.
Ironwood was one of the first to post a notice on the new site, for -yard Dumpsters of clean refuse from dust collector and grinder. 2-3 containers in winter months and 5-7 containers in the summer months.”
The ad has already generated interest from a couple of potential buyers, Knudson said.
Could be a match made in heaven.
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