Boise Cascade Company is an American manufacturer of wood products and wholesale distributor of building materials, headquartered in Boise, Idaho.
with sales over $7.9 billion in 2021, it is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol BCC. Boise Cascade Wood Products manufactures plywood, engineered wood products and lumber; it supplies a broad line of wood products and building materials through Boise Cascade Building Materials Distribution's 38 distribution locations.
The company has approximately 6,000 employees across North America.
The company is distinct from the Canadian paper company Cascades, and although it serves as the namesake for the Packaging Corporation of America-owned paper company Boise, Inc., this was formed from the assets of its spun off paper and packaging divisions in 2008.
History
Boise Cascade Corporation was formed in 1957 through the merger of Cascade Lumber Company of Yakima, Washington, and Boise Payette Lumber Company Robert Hansberger of Boise Payette became the CEO, and the new corporation focused on ownership and management of timberlands, the growing and harvesting of timber, and the manufacturing and distribution of lumber products and building materials. By late 1958, the company had established more than 100 retail outlets for its wholesale distribution business. That same year, BC's first paper mill became operational in Wallula, to produce corrugated shipping containers.
The 1960s saw the company's swift expansion into the forest products industry, as well as wide variety of other businesses. Boise Cascade owned concrete ready-mix plants, plastic manufacturing plants, textiles, and sand and gravel companies. In 1964, the company entered office products distribution. The mid-1960s brought an even more diverse portfolio including ownership of a motor home manufacturer, a cruise line, involvement in real estate and recreation projects, and an acquisition in the engineering and construction business for major utilities. Boise native William Agee joined the company in 1964 and was the chief financial officer from 1969 the stock price rapidly rose to $77 in 1969, but was down to $15 by the fall
Boise Cascade's current headquarters in Boise was built in 1970, designed by architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. With the share price at around eleven dollars, Hansberger resigned in John Fery was promoted to CEO and moved the company back to its core competencies of building materials and As the 1980s progressed, a decline in the housing market led to a downsizing in building products distribution business, and by 1987, all retail outlets had been sold or closed.
In the early 1990s, the company sold the wholesale portion of its office products distribution business while keeping the consumer business. In the 1990s, Boise Cascade invested in engineered wood products, building mills in White City, Oregon, and in Alexandria, Louisiana, for producing laminated veneer lumber (LVL). Boise Cascade introduced the finger-jointing technique for manufacturing LVL that remains unique to the EWP industry today. After leading the company for 22 years, Fery retired