Welcome @David_Hoglund! We are glad to have you as part of our community. You have a WEALTH of experience across the supply chain. If it’s alright with you, I’d love for you to offer your retail perspective on the market. Retail plays a huge role in the market, and yet most market reporting is so often hyper-focused on the mill level and so we miss the full picture.
@Craig_Parker you guys should connect!
Andrew, the debate between natural and cultivated forests has been an issue for decades. I believe that the notion of monocultural plantations is starting to evolve towards multi species but not everyone has adopted the practice. There are so many variables to consider that the process of evolution will take time but it appears obvious this early in the process that there are definite advantages. In terms of the quality, because the industry doesn’t operate on a fixed product blend, the fiber goes to the market with the best and most consistent return. European mills rarely have inventory of finished products that is unsold. They produce according to the order file whereas in North America, for the most part mills simply try to produce as much volume as possible of the same basket of products and only consider changing their focus when inventories stop moving. I liken it too the following models: in Europe sales drive production whereas in North America, production drives sales.
Discussion continued here:
Howdy all. I’m Craig, I’m up in Maine, and about a year and a half ago I stepped up with two others to keep a lumber yard in the Moulton family.
I worked here years ago, but our ERP provider hired me out and I’ve been in tech ever since. I am not a fan of Corporate America, so I’m back at a small business.
I got here in the midst of the Covid ruckus (July 2020), didn’t get a whole lot of advice from the generation that retired, and am trying to find my way. I’m automating what I can, swearing at my ERP provider when I can’t, and trying to use technology to cut times down on manual processes. This is all in preparation for growth. We’ve historically been a passive lumber yard, and competitors are eating our lunch, so I’m gearing up to go rectify that.
I’m a Linux guy, have a pretty thorough knowledge of MySQL (the database) and can code some (shell scripts and PHP).
I also have a wicked Mainah accent…
Welcome !
Welcome “wicked Mainah accent” @Craig_Parker – welcome aboard! Tell me you ski? x-country or downhill, anything would do! In which case we’re packing up to go visit you up in Mainah… accent and all 
Seriously though, we would love your opinion on what @David_Hoglund and myself have been discussing in the Retail perspective - #4 by Nadia thread. Will go tag you there as well @Craig_Parker
Alas, I do not ski. I have been known to snowboard on occasion, but not lately. I was debating making a youtube video for the lumber yard where I “waterski on a sled” behind a truck driving around our icy parking lot, but haven’t gotten there yet.
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video for the lumber yard where I “waterski on a sled” behind a truck driving around our icy parking lot
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That would be so rad @Craig_Parker! I can’t wait for that video!! What are you waiting for? Trying to make a buck? 
Have you seen the Red Bull commercial w/ the moto cross covering the entire LBM supply chain, courtesy of @Michael_Haas ?
here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckTj4HT-GU4
Well, here’s me counting insulation one day last year…
99 bundles of insulation on the wall….
Hello everyone!
My name is Andrey, I’m from Russia. I am 41 and I have little experience in the wood industry (about 1.5 years). Many people have told me that this is not the best time to change jobs and especially to start working in the wood industry, but who knows when the “best” time will come? I think that only after going a certain way you can tell what time was the best to start.
Anyway, I am here.
I sell birch lumber, which we produce here in Russia. The main market is China, we also supply products to Vietnam and customers in Europe.
@Andrew_Gibson, thanks for the invitation to join Pakira!
and sorry for my Ruglish! If you find any errors in the text, it’s Google’s fault! 
Howdy !
Privet @Andrey_Tikhomirov! No time like the present, glad to have you with us! Looking forward to hearing your perspective on the Russian Birch market.
Кто не рискует, тот не пьет шампанского
I did the same thing, leaving a tech career to come help take over a family lumber yard. I figure if I can survive this, things should be fairly peachy moving forward.
I think you made a great choice . Pakira is trying to connect tech to the lumber industry
Welcome on board @Andrey_Tikhomirov! We hope to get to the point, somewhere in the not so distant future, where we can help you with your Russian birch business even in Russia, with China and Vietnam. We are currently starting from North America, US and Canada, and growing from there.
The “Google’s fault! ” is hilarious – we will keep this in mind for ourselves. Google won’t even notice it’s being blamed! 
On another note, Russian birches are very different from North American birches. The Russian birches are stark white, and really light up a forest. In the US, the birch forests tend to have silver birches. Not sure about further north in Canada, maybe they start to resemble the Russian birches more… ?
Very interesting. I never knew that. How does Russain Birch compare to Baltic?
They’re white here in Maine, but as they get older they start getting black at the bottoms. Google white “birch maine” images and you’ll see some.
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