PLC Loggers Voice Summer 2017

golf products including cleats, and today is a world leader
in all these products, Randy Dicker, senior director of
manufacturing at Pride, said.
The
Burnham mill is
located in what
was once an
Ethan Allen
facility before
Pride purchased it
in 1992 and
moved its Maine
manufacturing
there from
Guilford. The
Pride shop where
the custom
machines to
manufacture
everything from
Lincoln logs to
cigar tips are built remained in Guilford, and Pride has
warehouses and other facilities in Wisconsin, Canada,
Europe, and Asia.
From the road, the Burnham facility looks smaller
than it is. Inside it is a vast well-lit space humming with
activity and surrounded by log yards, storage, and shipping
facilities.
The contract to produce Lincoln Logs for the
company licensed to distribute
them has made the facility
even busier than it already
was, and pushed the company
into new areas of
manufacturing.
“We felt we had tight
tolerances with golf tees and
cigar tips, but then we had to
deal with toy standards and
that was a totally different ball
game,” Randy said. “Rock
maple proved to be the best
species, it’s harder to cut, we had to really work hard on
feed speeds and saw designs, but it doesn’t splinter as
much. Being made out of rock maple these Lincoln Logs
are gonna last awhile, kids will be a long time breaking
those.”
Pride is always innovating and seeking new
products and efficiencies to remain competitive. The
company is near to marketing a new line of attractive
wainscoting
manufactured
from excess birch
red heart wood,
has undertaken
major energy
efficiency
upgrades, and
generates nearly
all its heat from
burning biomass
waste. Pride also
guards its trade
secrets carefully,
and constantly
seeks ways to
produce higher
quality products
at greater rates of speed with fewer people to compete with
Chinese manufacturers.
Buying high quality logs cut to the most efficient
lengths for manufacturing is one way Pride is working to
maintain its edge and become a better company, Scott said.
“Relationships with loggers are important to
achieving that,” Scott said.
Finding good workers, holding down energy costs,
and maintaining a solid wood
supply are all challenges for
the company, but in a state
where headlines often talk
about the demise of the wood
products industry, Pride is an
example of how good
companies and good workers
in Maine can compete
globally, and this is a
message the company
The vast interior of the Pride Manufacturing facility (opposite page and above left).
Cigar tips being sorted for quality control (at right).
Lincoln Logs
Golf tees
promotes whenever it can.
“I’ve started doing
some career days in schools
and that’s part of what I’ve been trying to do is sell the fact
that the forest industry isn’t dead, the state of Maine still
has over 200 wood related businesses,” Randy
said.
The Logger’s Voice ▪ Summer 2017
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