Rosboro Grows With Glulam

Article by Dan Shell, Senior Editor, Panel World

SPRINGFIELD, Oregon – During the past decade-plus, Rosboro has made several major moves and undergone big changes, including the introduction of a revolutionary glulam product, the sale by family ownership to institutional investors in 2016 that included selling its timberlands—and subsequent acquisition by One Equity Partners in 2021. Along the way, the company has upgraded its operations and is on the cusp of a major expansion.

“Not much has changed fundamentally for us—we’re still the same company with the same values and focus,” says Brian Wells, Rosboro Senior Vice President of Markteing & Strategic Development. However, no longer having that readily available and low-cost timber base to help absorb market impacts has made the company more responsive, he believes.

“The lack of timber has forced us to get better at what we do,” Wells says. “We make moves every day to respond to the market.” He adds that “at the end of the day we believe in our position as the top producer of glulam in North America—and we intend to keep growing that position.”

Rosboro is a legendary name in West Coast forest products manufacturing, founded when the Caddo River Lumber Co. moved west from Rosboro, Arkansas in 1939 and began producing lumber on the site it still occupies in Springfield. Veneer and plywood operations were added in 1959, and the company opened its first glulam plant in 1963. A pioneer then as now, Rosboro’s plant was the first to use a continuous fingerjoint line, RF glue curing and machine-rated lamstock.

GLULAM SUCCESS

A big part of Rosboro’s glulam market strength comes from X-Beam, the company’s full framing width stock architectural glulam introduced in 2010. The product turned heads and drew a slew of skeptics when it hit the market: priced the same as previous architectural beams but with more wood fiber to fit wall framing widths, many believed the product was leaving money on the table. However, X-Beam’s benefits, which include uniformity with standard framing widths, fewer SKUs for wholesalers to stock and better construction performance such as reduced shimming and other job-site alterations and modifications, won over the market.