Kilmer Group announced the completion of its sale to Interfor Corporation of 100% of the equity interests in the entities comprising Chaleur Forest Products.
Chaleur owns two sawmill operations located in Belledune and Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada. Chaleur is the second-largest producer of lumber in Atlantic Canada, with an aggregate annual lumber production capacity of 350 million board feet. Chaleur also operates a woodlands management division based out of Miramichi that manages 2.3 million acres of Crown forests (representing approximately 30% of total Crown forest land in New Brunswick).
Chaleur has been a pioneer in New Brunswick's forestry industry since its Belledune sawmill first began operations in the early 1990s. Kilmer Group's investment in Chaleur, which is held through Kilmer Forestry LP, began in March 2016, when it acquired Chaleur sawmills. In May 2018, Kilmer Forestry acquired Fornebu Lumber Company and in May 2020, Miramichi Lumber Products. Under Kilmer Forestry's management, Chaleur invested more than $40 million in capital projects, allowing Chaleur to make meaningful improvements to its operations including mill automation, just-in-time equipment reporting, asset improvements and projects to improve environmental sustainability.
As part of the acquisition of Miramichi Lumber Products, Chaleur was able to add a third shift at the Bathurst sawmill, which provided much needed employment when the closure of the Belledune smelter in 2019 resulted in over 400 people losing their jobs.
The Bathurst sawmill is the focus of a current biomass boiler project, to be completed early in the new year, which will reduce the consumption of propane by 5 million litres annually.
Kilmer Group is a Canadian company with substantial private equity, infrastructure & real estate and sports & media holdings.
