My History of Promoting
Canadian Forestry Products

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However, the market changed in just a few years. By the mid-1990s, European and Far Eastern MDF aggressively usurped most of the market share in the Gulf region. In response, I shifted my company’s focus towards a cut-stock remanufacturing facility. My brother, Fareed Amir, had also joined the company at this time. Although neither of us had any direct manufacturing experience, I recognized the opportunity for Canadian pallet stock exports to the United States, especially with the product’s duty exemption under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

With supply from supportive primary mills (including Slocan Forest Products, Weldwood of Canada, West Fraser Timber, Riverside Forest Products, Tolko Industries, Canfor Corporation, Interfor Corporation, and Sinclar Group Forest Products), our company, under the newly adopted tradename SPF Precut Lumber, grew quickly and produced pallet stock at five different facilities: our own facility in Port Moody, D&D Wood Products in Vanderhoof, Quesnel Wood Products in Quesnel, Landmark Truss & Lumber in Abbotsford, and Sugar Cane Wood Products in Williams Lake. By 2005, SPF Precut Lumber was exporting twenty vanloads of cut-stock per day to the United States.

Although SPF Precut Lumber was primarily producing pallet stock for the American market, we also shipped pallet stock to Israel and Saudi Arabia in 2005, becoming the first company to ship Canadian pallet stock to those markets. We also produced custom sizes for door style producers in India. This product was produced with raw materials from Sundance Forest Products.

With a looming American housing bubble and our renewed success in the overseas exports of Canadian softwood lumber, I strategized to diversify our customer base with a focus on “blue ocean” markets: markets that had little or no experience with Canadian softwood lumber. Built on strong relationships with major BC primary mills, SPF Precut Lumber restarted export wholesale operations of Canadian softwood lumber. However, we did so with an innovative business model for lumber export.

This business model – unique to the industry – continues to be our competitive advantage and value proposition for both customers and primary mills as we approach 2020: SPF Precut Lumber, supported by its relationships with major primary mills, stocks 15-20 million boardfeet of lumber in unsold inventory in our yard, with over 5 million boardfeet on order at any given time. I am personally
proud that SPF Precut Lumber carries products produced by Canfor Corporation, West Fraser Timber, Tolko Industries, Western Forest Products, Conifex Timber, Dunkley Lumber, and Carrier Lumber and promotes these products to new markets.

By carrying a large, unsold inventory, we offer prompt shipment to our export markets. In fact, we ship export orders within seven days
of an order confirmation, whereas other broker/exporters require two to six weeks of lead time for shipping export orders. With a
diversity of over twenty markets across the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Mexico, we are well positioned to assume the capital risk of holding a large inventory since we are not dependent on the demand conditions of one or two markets. This enables us to take aggressive positions on physical lumber, which, in turn, increases our competitiveness in the marketplace.

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