The Maine International Trade Center recently announced that Hancock Lumber has been named Maine’s Exporter of the Year. Hancock Lumber is the largest manufacturer of Eastern White Pine (EWP) boards in North America. Hancock started their export business in 2007 and today proudly ships their products all over the world.
Sawmill Division COO, Kevin Hynes attributes the mills’ success during one of America’s toughest times to their diversification of markets, “Our export business has enabled the company to keep all three of our mills running and our employees working during the US recession. That’s where the real credit goes, to our employees who have been flexible and able to adapt to new products and customers – on Monday they are making 1-inch boards for New York and on Tuesday 33-millimeter lumber for China.”
When EWP is introduced to a new country, potential customers immediately accept it as a superior product to all other pine species. It takes about 80 years to grow a EWP tree to maturity and this slow growth creates a very stable and durable product. Hancock is one of the few remaining lumber companies still growing its own trees, owning 12,500 acres of timberland in Cumberland & Oxford counties.
Kevin Hancock, a sixth-generation family member and the company’s President commented, “It is exciting to see a natural resource growing abundantly in Maine, manufactured in Maine and sold around the world. Our manufacturing facilities have developed exceptional flexibility and our sales team has been able use that flexibility to customize products for a particular region of the world. It’s really very exciting to see a unit of lumber in Casco, Bethel or Pittsfield, Maine and know it is bound for global markets.”
Established in 1848, Hancock Lumber Company is one of America’s oldest and most distinguished family-owned lumber companies. Today, the company has 200 manufacturing employees in Maine with sawmills in Casco, Bethel and Pittsfield. In 2011 Hancock Lumber purchased over 50 million board feet of Eastern White Pine logs and spent over $30 million dollars in the Maine economy from its manufacturing operations alone. Hancock Lumber also operates 10 retail locations across Maine and New Hampshire where their made-in-Maine pine products are available.
Hancock Lumber will be one of four companies to be recognized at the Maine International Trade Day, May 24th at the Samoset Resort in Rockport.