Wood Products Manufacturer To Hire 25
Forest Wood Fiber Products, based in Lake Elsinore California, is in escrow to buy a Richgrove plant site in Southern Tulare County and will relocate operations in the next 45 days.
So says company owner Mark Carlston who adds he is buying nearly 40 acres adjacent to the 5-acre site to cultivate agave plants for second business line. The family forest products business has been operating since 1905.
The wood fiber company grinds waste wood, some from nearby Sierra Forest Products of Terra Bella, into nursery products including organic soil amendments and landscaping material.
“Many of our customers are from northern California and our trucks were having to go back and forth between there and our southern California markets says Carlston.
”Now we are half way to both places.”
On top of that finding enough logging material in southern California is becoming increasingly difficult, he says.
The manufacturing operation in Richgrove will be at a 5-acre former almond processing plant on Ave 24 that has not been used recently. Carlston says he is selling his Lake Elsinore building and will plow money back into his new Richrove facility to add power and do a septic system.
“Tulare County and especially (county staffer) Mike Washam have been great to work with.We expect to pet all permits in place in 45 days. In Southern California that took 3 years.”
Carlston says he will be hiring about 25 employees at the plant in addition to 10 others, mostly drivers who deliver product.
Regards planting agave Carlston says he also owns a tequila company but that some of the agave will be harvested to make agave nectar, a source of sugar beneficial for diabetics. The outer fiber is used to make rope and the waste material is a good cattle feed.