private employee owned industry forest products founded 1957 headquarters greensboro north carolina united states key people brad thompson ceo number of employees 2 000 website www.columbiaforestproducts.com columbia forest products is the largest manufacturer of hardwood veneer and hardwood plywood in the united states . founded in 1957 it is headquartered in greensboro north carolina . it specializes in decorative interior veneers and plywood panels that are used in high end cabinetry fine furniture architectural millwork and commercial fixtures . the company distributes its products primarily through a network of wholesale distributors mass merchandisers and oems . since 1976 the company has been completely employee owned and currently has 10 manufacturing facilities throughout the u.s. and canada . at the end of 2006 columbia converted all of its standard hardwood plywood production to produce formaldehyde free panels called purebond . in 2007 columbia added purebond formaldehyde free particleboard to its product range . history edit the company began in 1957 in klamath falls oregon as klamath hardwoods establishing its first hardwood veneer plant with 43 employees . in 1963 it was acquired by columbia plywood corp. in 1966 it acquired additional facilities in presque isle maine and newport vermont . the company was restructured by an employee buy out in 1976 acquiring its current name . in 1982 it built a manufacturing facility in old fort north carolina . in 1986 it acquired two additional plants in chatham virginia and trumann arkansas . in 1989 it acquired the laminated products division in thomasville north carolina as well as a hardwood veneer face manufacturing mill in rutherglen ontario . in 1991 it acquired a half round slicing operation in new freedom pennsylvania . in march 1996 it acquired two hardwood plywood plants in danville virginia and dequeen arkansas . in august 1996 it acquired two plants in hearst ontario plywood pbc & melamines and st casimir quebec . in december 1996 the laminated products division became columbia flooring . in january 1997 it acquired an additional hardwood plywood plant in cuthbert georgia . in 2000 cfp acquired an existing veneer plant in mellen wisconsin . and a few years after a massive overhaul in the plant took place and an in line dryer system was installed to streamline production and ensure the plant stayed competitive and profitable . in june 2007 mohawk industries inc. mhk signed a deal with columbia forest products to acquire two pre finished solid plants and one engineered wood plant in the u.s. and an engineered wood plant in malaysia . 1 columbia forest products relocated its headquarters at the end of 2007 to greensboro north carolina from portland oregon . 2 references edit mohawk purchases columbia flooring assets . floorbiz.com . july 10 2007 . plywood manufacturer to move headquarters to greensboro . the business journal . may 26 2008 . external links edit columbia forest products official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title columbia forest products & oldid 729873997 categories companies based in greensboro north carolinaforest products companies of the united statescompanies established in 1957 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages fran ais edit links this page was last modified on 15 july 2016 at 04 44 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view