Our History

Our operations began in 1990 with the start-up of a whole log chipping plant in north-central British Columbia, Canada. Mill owners, Patrick and Richard Glazier, believed then as he does today, that full utilization of logs and residual material “is simply the right thing to do”. The whole log chip plant was equipped with the first drum de-barker in BC, selected because it could chip tops, allow for efficient debarking of small diameter logs, and harvest debris that would otherwise have been piled at roadside and burned. Initially, the chip plant supplied chips to the pulp mill located in Mackenzie, BC and over time to a pulp mill 200 km away.

In 1994, as markets created stronger demand for structural engineered wood products, the Glazier brothers established their first finger joint plant in Mackenzie, BC. East Fraser Fiber Co. Ltd. manufactures vertical-use studs for the North American home construction market. This plant has been expanded three times and today it is running at full capacity.

Building on the success of operations in Mackenzie, we established Parallel Wood Products Ltd. in Williams Lake. Our second finger joint plant began production in 2002 with the capacity to run three shifts a day.

In one day, each plant can handle 200,000 pieces of wood, anywhere from 12 inches to 24 inches in length. Finger jointing pieces of wood to make engineered lumber products is labor intensive.

In 2006, we started a block sorting station in Quesnel, BC. This plant enabled us to manufacture finger joint studs to feed our finger joint plants to the south and north of Quesnel.

In 2017, a small logging side was formed in Mackenzie, BC, capable of harvesting trees with a smaller profile. The focus was to utilize as much wood from mountain pine beetle killed stands as possible. By increasing utilization and delivering most of the harvest debris to our chip plant, rather than piling and burning it at roadside, carbon emissions were reduced.

During the middle of the housing bubble in 2009, the Glaziers visited a shuttered sawmill in Alabama. The brothers were not so good at saying “no” to opportunity and in 2010, they secured the mill and expanded their operations from the original base in Canada, to Albertville in northern Alabama. When markets improved in 2013, they restarted the mill. With the sawmill, it only made sense to build a SYP finger joint plant in the same area, utilizing trim ends produced from the sawmilling process.

In 2019, Parallel33 Lumber Corp was opened just five miles down the road in Boaz, Alabama. This plant followed in the steps of their northern cousins, and quickly earned the reputation of producing strong, straight, finger joint studs for the US construction market.

Canada

• East Fraser Fiber Co. Ltd.; Finger Joint Manufacturing
• East Fraser Fiber Co. Ltd.; Quesnel Block Sort Station
• East Fraser Fiber Co. Ltd.; Whole Log Chip Plant
• East Fraser Fiber Co. Ltd.: Forest Operations
• Parallel Wood Products Ltd.; Finger Joint Manufacturing

USA

• Parallel33 Lumber Corporation; Finger Joint Manufacturing
• Southern Parallel Forest Products Ltd.; Dimension Lumber Manufacturer