Price & Pierce is one of those enduring names in the timber trade that seems to have been around forever.
It was actually 150 years old on March 31 – a major milestone, which it is celebrating this year.
Visiting the company’s head office in Woking you are instantly reminded of the long history – framed on the wall like a copy of the Magna Carta is the original signed document of the company’s formation in 1869.
The three existing directors Stephen Pitt, Andrew Rhys-Davies and Richard Gore, who between them have racked up an incredible 135 years at the company, are keenly aware of the longevity of the Price & Pierce name and the impact it has had on the global timber trade.
As Price & Pierce celebrates the big birthday, it is also embarking on a new, exciting chapter after being acquired by North American forest products giant International Forest Products (IFP), part of the multi-billion dollar Kraft Group.
MD Mr Pitt, who has been at the company for 41 years, said the directors went to considerable lengths to explain the history and brand strength of the company to IFP during the acquisition negotiations.
Having an owner who valued what the business stood for and could be a trusted custodian for the future was an important consideration for the directors.
Mr Pitt said IFP soon realised the power and longevity of the Price & Pierce name it would have on its hands.
IFP is one of the top five US forest product companies, and its business includes paper and wood products. Parent company the Kraft Group owns the US Superbowl winners New England Patriots and the team’s Gillette Stadium.
Daniel Kraft, president and CEO of International Forest Products, and a son of Kraft founder Robert Kraft, flew over to meet the Price & Pierce staff, where Mr Pitt joked that a warm and friendly Mr Kraft encouraged them to “lose the ties”.
With IFP already having a UK base at Newbury and there being some mutual crossover between the two companies’ business, the acquisition of Price & Pierce represented an opportunity for IFP to grow its UK business.
Founding Of Price & Pierce
Looking back at the history of Price & Pierce is a fascinating journey and the details are recorded in a short book “Price & Pierce Ltd – A short history of the firm”, penned in August 1956.
The seeds for the company were sown during the Napoleonic Wars, when Napoleon was blockading Sweden in 1810.
William Price was one of two agents sent out to eastern Canada by the British Admiralty to find an alternative supply of masts and spars for the British Navy.
Mr Price went to Quebec and started a sawmilling business, which prospered and built up its name. Following his death in 1867, his London-based youngest son Edward met John Pierce from Liverpool and together they formed Price & Pierce as an agent for Price Bros.
The following years saw them add several further agency agreements with other eastern Canadian spruce timber exporters and also pitch pine exporters in the southern US. Sales were extended to cover not only the UK, but Europe, South Africa and the US.
The impact of the business on eastern Canada can be seen today by a monument built in Quebec City in honour of the company.
Then, in about 1902 business was added from the Nordic countries to also include wood pulp and paper. In 1905 the business became a private limited company.
In 1906 a new pitch pine exporting company – Standard Export Lumber Company Ltd was formed in New Orleans with the active interest of Price & Pierce to promote business from Louisiana and Texas.
Price & Pierce was responsible in 1912 for the construction of the first kraft paper mill to be built in the southern US States – in Mississippi – which it ran for 15 years before selling it to International Paper.
It also took part in the building of a pulp and paper mill at Ocean Falls, British Columbia in the same year.
In 1921 Edward Price died. As the company history book says: “His contribution to the good name and success of Price & Pierce is beyond calculation.”
Following WWI, emphasis was on wood pulp from Finland, though the number and importance of the company’s Finnish timber agencies also greatly increased, while trade of central European timbers sprang up – shipped via Danzig and Memel.
The agency of HR MacMillan Export Company – later to become MacMillan Bloedel – was acquired in 1934.
After WWII, Price & Pierce had to build up again following wartime government control of timber, but contacts were re-established with Sweden, Finland and Norway and newer supply sources were tapped – Brazil, the Gold Coast, Ecuador, Sarawak, Burma, Chile and Dutch Guiana, while the selling agency of the newly formed MacMillan Bloedel was acquired.
In 1956 some 230 people worked for Price & Pierce with seven branch offices. “Through it all runs the same feeling and spirit, the same standard of values, that has always made its name respected throughout the world,” said the company history book.
“This alone gives promise of a future as rewarding and as exciting as its long and interesting past.”
At the Woking office there is a company centenary dinner event guest book, dated March 31, 1969. Some 49 tables were filled at the Grosvenor House Hotel as the company celebrated its 100 years in business.
“When I joined the company in 1977 there was still a Price working in the company,” recalled Mr Pitt.
The original Price company in Canada was morphed into the Abitibi–Price business in the late 1980s.
Recent History
Forty years ago the company had a very diverse business, including massive pulp and paper operations all over the world, as well as a big Russian, Canadian and Swedish timber import business, with companies dealing in hardwood and plywood.
“We were in the mainstream, supplying 500,000m3 of Russian timber at one stage,” said Mr Pitt. “If you are dealing with that type of volume you had to take on the major names in the importing trade.”
When the current directors took ownership of the business in 2000 via a management buyout from Ibstock Group they stripped it back to mainly softwood and plywood in the start. Mr Pitt said the company consciously took a step back from the high profile timber world and diligently got on with its business, taking time to steadily build the other product areas back up.
Chipboard was added following the purchase of panels distribution company Eric Matthews in 2011.
“We have a broad base of supply now,” said Mr Pitt. The product range includes structural timber, decking, battens, machined timber, glulam beams, sleepers, scaffold boards, joinery wood, Thermowood and door cores. Solid wood suppliers include Siljan of Sweden, Kurekss of Latvia and Pölkky of Finland.
It has a wide range of value-added panel products from the likes of South American panels manufacturer CMPC (Selex brand) with which it has a 27-year relationship, as well as Unilin, including fire retardant and specialist racking boards.
The operation extends to 12 staff in Woking and three at Leeds. The longevity of the business is also mirrored in the loyalty and service of its staff.
“I have been here for 41 years, Andrew has been here for 44 years and I think Richard has spent nearly 50 years at the company. There are others here that have spent 30 years and 29 years at the business as well.”
The Future
There appears to be genuine excitement in the next chapter of the company, working as a division of its new parent company IFP, with the present management team remaining in place.
IFP’s existing trade in the UK has included involvement with UK sawmillers, exporting some timber to the Middle East/Africa region and China.
Its wider group business is largely pulp, paper and packaging, but also exporting of logs from the southern US to China in big volumes and from South Africa to China. “IFP sees us as a possible route for them to bring in their products into the UK,” said Mr Pitt.
He said it was too early to say what additional products may be involved so soon after the acquisition, but the company would be looking hard at potential opportunities.
Mr Pitt has had long experience dealing with North American companies, travelling extensively and trading with the likes of Boise Cascade and Plum Creek over the years.
He can still remember the power and punch of the Price & Pierce name on his global trade visits, recalling on one occasion how one US senior and respected executive dropped everything to take him out for lunch when he heard Price & Pierce “were in town”, even though Mr Pitt had not organised a meeting with the company.
In Germany, one supplier still has a huge carving of a bear presented to it by Price & Pierce to celebrate their business relationship – the bear has become a bit of an heirloom and landmark for the company.
“IFP has very much recognised this is a historical company it has bought into at a very interesting time,” added Mr Pitt. “I think it has come to appreciate what it is getting, which I am pleased about.”
Of course times have changed in the UK timber trade in recent decades with consolidation and different structures in the supply chain, with some of the old big trading names no longer in existence.
“There has been this massive change in the timber industry.”
Mr Pitt remembers that during change in 2004 Travis Perkins was a big customer that did not want to be buying forward cargoes any more. Like much of the trade, Price & Pierce made the changes to keeping stocks of solid wood, battens and decking and moved towards just-in-time delivery.
“Today, we are less than 25% a traditional agency business. Now we are an importer and distributor.”
He said the change was not rocket science and still remembers someone saying to him – “The big challenge for you is change. Change is going to happen. The challenge for you is how are you going to manage that change?” Since 2000, managing trade changes has been the company’s mantra.
“Everyone in the company is massively excited about the potential of the marriage with IFP and we are confident this will increase the scale of our operations in the UK timber trade both in terms of the existing portfolio of products and other [new] products we have yet to decide on.”
So the story of Price & Pierce goes on.
