Cuts announced at Humboldt Redwood

Times-Standard

April 30, 2009

The Humboldt Redwood Co. announced today that it will lay off 30 forestry workers due to continued weakness in the wood products industry.

Humboldt Redwood CEO Richard Higgenbottom said that he anticipates most of those positions will be refilled within 18 months, although seven of the positions are permanently closed.

"If the economy improves and sales improve, we'll bring people back earlier," Higgenbottom said.

The company's sister operation, Mendocino Redwood Co., also announced layoffs of a similar scale.

Both companies will reduce the amount of logging they plan to do over the next two years in an effort to reduce log inventory to balance it with slow sales. The sawmills are continuing to run on an as-needed basis, with periodic downtime, Higgenbottom said.