Our History

In the spring of 1955, the Ketcham brothers—Sam (25), Bill (30) and Pete (33)—purchased Two Mile Planing Mills Ltd. in Quesnel, B.C., for $60,000.

Two Mile was one of the few deals the Ketcham brothers could finance and expectations were modest. With Sam at the helm, and a $45,000 purchase balance due by the end of the year, work quickly began to fine-tune operations. The mill turned a $5,000 profit in its first month. The seeds of what would grow into West Fraser were now planted.

The quick success of Two Mile fueled an early period of phenomenal growth.

This expansion started in 1957 with the purchase of 55% of Wright Lumber in Williams Lake, which had a sawmill and planer.

This also included timber holdings to the west of town, in the Chilcotin region, which were strategically significant in ensuring the future growth of the company.

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Sam was determined to acquire timber supply to feed operations. In fact, his talent for purchasing small mills in the region earned him the nickname “Bushmill Sam.”

By 1961, the company had firmly secured our timber supply with the acquisition of the remaining 45% of the Swetnam assets, along with several more purchases in Quesnel and the surrounding areas.

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The decade between 1968 and 1978 was marked by rapid growth of West Fraser’s B.C. manufacturing base.

In 1968, West Fraser acquired one of the oldest mills in the Cariboo, and diversified into the retail building supply business. In 1970, West Fraser built an innovative new mill in Quesnel—one of the first successful small wood mills in B.C. In the ensuing years, West Fraser went on to purchase mills in Smithers, Fraser Lake, Fort Fraser, Dawson Creek and Chetwynd, and built three new mills in Smithers, Fraser Lake and Chetwynd.

On November 8, 1977, West Fraser’s world was turned upside down. During a one-hour flight from Prince George to Quesnel, the helicopter carrying company President Sam Ketcham, Chief Forester Phil Bodman and pilot Ken Waines crashed.

More than 300 ground searchers—including townspeople, neighbouring sawmills and nearly every local West Fraser employee—assisted with the three-day operation. Three military planes, 20 helicopters and two corporate jets covered a 5,000 square kilometre search area. Three days later, on November 11, the wreckage was found. There were no survivors.

In 1981, diversification was furthered with the purchase of a 40% interest in Kitimat-based Eurocan Pulp & Paper. By 1993, West Fraser had complete ownership. The purchase brought with it access to a large fibre resource through consolidated timber tenures west of Prince George, as well as a linerboard and kraft paper mill, two sawmills and a partial interest in two joint venture sawmills in B.C.’s northern Interior.

On January 31, 2010, after ongoing efforts to reduce the operating costs and improve results, West Fraser announced that it would permanently close the operation.

West Fraser debuted on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) in May 1986 with an initial price of $20.50 per share. Our strong earnings history, solid asset base, proven business ethics, experienced management and loyal employee base served us well.

The IPO was a boon to the company. Together with West Fraser’s long-held business strategy of low-cost operations, a solid balance sheet and reinvesting profits, going public helped deliver a new level of success and positioned West Fraser to realize our boldest visions.

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To preserve the area in perpetuity, West Fraser made the historic gesture of voluntarily, and without compensation, relinquishing our sole harvesting rights to the Kitlope—the largest intact coastal temperate rainforest on earth. At 317,500 hectares, it remains the largest relinquishment of harvesting rights in North America.

The Kitlope was the first major portion of the Great Bear Rainforest to receive protection. Lying within the traditional territory of the Haisla Nation, it encompasses a rich diversity of cultural and natural heritage values. Known as “Hushuwashsdu,” or “Source of the milky blue waters,” the Haisla used the area to harvest plants, animals and fish.

West Fraser’s preservation of the Kitlope is an example of long-held commitments to sustainability and environmental stewardship. Now called the Huchsduwachsdu Nuyem Jees (or, Kitlope Heritage Conservancy), future generations will be able to enjoy this beautiful, pristine wilderness area.

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In 1995, West Fraser purchased Alberta Energy’s Forest Products Division.

These assets included Slave Lake Pulp, the Blue Ridge sawmill, and Ranger Board MDF, which took waste fibre from neighbouring West Fraser sawmills and used it to produce medium-density fibreboard (MDF). This integration of West Fraser’s product lines enabled our local operations to achieve the optimal utilization of sawmilling residuals.

Construction of the WestPine MDF plant in Quesnel was completed in 1996, making it the first of its kind in B.C.

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Pete Ketcham sadly passed away in 1996. While Pete is recognized for co-founding West Fraser and driving our exponential growth, he is most remembered for his community spirit and helping others to achieve what they thought were impossible goals.

As a tribute to Pete’s legacy of generosity and his commitment to helping others reach higher, in 1997 West Fraser established the Pete Ketcham Memorial Scholarship Fund. The fund helps post-secondary students located in our operating communities reach their academic goals by distributing annual grants to eligible candidates.

Given the size and importance of the U.S. market—and the emerging threat of mountain pine beetle in B.C.—West Fraser had been exploring opportunities to establish lumber manufacturing operations south of the border. This would help us grow while adding more product and geographic diversity.

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West Fraser had assumed a dominant position in the Canadian home improvement retail market with the acquisition of Revelstoke Building Supply Stores in 1988, later rebranded as Revy. Revy grew to be the second-largest Canadian retail home improvement and garden centre chain. West Fraser sold the business to RONA Inc. in 2001, a bittersweet closing to this successful chapter.

The refocus was crucial to West Fraser’s long-term growth strategy and helped to finance the company’s expansion into the U.S.

We accelerated our expansion into the U.S. in 2007, acquiring 13 mills located in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas.

This long-term strategic move strengthened West Fraser’s core lumber business; gave us significant new geographic access to fibre and product diversification; and established West Fraser as a major presence in the U.S. South. With this purchase, West Fraser became the largest softwood lumber producer in North America, with a combined Canadian and U.S. lumber production capacity of approximately 6.2 billion board feet.

We continued to grow our lumber business in the U.S. South between 2014 and 2017.

In 2014, the company purchased two sawmills in Arkansas and in 2017, acquired seven mills in Florida and Georgia from Gilman Building Products. The Gilman operations employed approximately 900 people with a combined annual production capacity of 700 million board feet of southern yellow pine lumber.

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On February 1, 2021, West Fraser commenced trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol WFG.

West Fraser went global in 2021 when it acquired Norbord—the world’s largest OSB producer—and gained a footprint with 14 OSB mills, an MDF mill, and two particle board mills located in the U.K. and Europe.

Norbord had a well-earned reputation for cost and margin performance, and for expanding the use of OSB in new applications and industries. It also had a complementary operating culture, with shared priorities of safety, sustainability and cost management.

The expansion marked a new era for us, making West Fraser a top global producer of both lumber and OSB.

We continued our U.S. expansion in 2021 with the acquisition of two new mills including one lumber mill and one OSB mill. This furthered the growth of the company’s two largest lines of business.

Both acquisitions allowed us to better meet customer demand, particularly from large, growing end-markets in the Southern U.S.

West Fraser is committed to meaningfully reduce our carbon footprint across our operations by 2030.

As part of this process, the company joined the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in 2022. As one of the world’s largest producers of lumber and OSB, and a leading manufacturer of other engineered wood and forest products, joining the SBTi demonstrated our commitment to sustainability leadership and our contribution to global climate action.

Continually seeking opportunities to strengthen the company, West Fraser made a series of moves in 2023.

The decision to divest three of our four pulp assets was announced, effectively seeing West Fraser exit the pulp business. In November 2023, the acquisition of a sawmill in Cochrane, Alberta, was an ideal fit with our lumber and treated wood business.

These moves improve the long-term outlook of the company and align with our strategy to be a premier, low-cost, sustainable and renewable wood building products manufacturer and a key supplier to customers.

Bill Ketcham, one of West Fraser's three founders, passes away peacefully in his sleep on morning of April 11, 2024. He was 98 years old. As an owner and Board member, Bill actively provided advice and expertise instrumental to the success of West Fraser.

We proudly celebrate West Fraser's 70th anniversary-a milestone built on the hard work of generations of employees. Thank you to all team members, past and present, who have shaped West Fraser's success.