Hunt Forest Products CEO Richie LeBlanc and Vice President of Operations Paul Williams were introduced to Winnfield Rotarians by Rotarian of the Day Kiah Beville at their meeting on January 22. Hunt has recently purchased the Winn Lumber mill on Thomas Mill Road in Winnfield. Williams grew up in Winnfield and attended Winn Parish schools.

LeBlanc gave a little history of Hunt Forest Products and brought copies of the book, “Pioneers of the Piney Woods,” which recounts the development of Hunt lumber mills in Winn Parish for the Rotary members to take home with them. According to LeBlanc, Hunt established mills in Dodson in the late 1800s which were sold to Willamette around 1973. This transaction prohibited Hunt from competing in the lumber business in this area for five years.

In 1978, Hunt established a veneer plant in Louisiana which is now a plywood plant. Since then, Hunt has built or acquired mills in Pollock, Olla, Urania, Bienville, and Taylor. These mills produce up to about 3-1/2 million tons of raw forest products in a year. Everything was being sold rough because Hunt had no drying capacity in any of its mills. 

When Winn Lumber came on the market, Hunt was interested because of its kilns, and a satisfactory agreement for Hunt to purchase the mill was reached in the summer of 2024. The plant when Hunt took possession of it was not in good condition, so Hunt tore out the old sawmill because it was not needed. Hunt has plenty of sawmill capacity in its other plants. It is focused on refurbishing the kilns and adding more drying capacity to fulfill the need for drying the products from its mills in nearby towns. They also moved the sorter from the Winnfield plant to Olla and installed a new stacker in Winnfield.

Roy James is the manager of the Winnfield plant as well as the Olla plant, and the Winnfield plant currently employs 25 people. However, as the drying capacity of the plant increases, they expect to increase the number of workers employed here. Hunt expects to be here in Winnfield for many years to come.

Following announcements regarding Rotary activities, the president adjourned the meeting with the Rotary motto, “Service above Self!”