Interfor is moving most of its executive and corporate support functions from Burnaby, British Columbia, to Peachtree, Georgia, formalising a geographical shift that has been underway across the company for more than a decade.<\/p>\n
The decision does not amount to a full withdrawal from British Columbia, where Interfor was founded and where it continues to operate three sawmills. It does, however, confirm that the company\u2019s traditional Canadian headquarters no longer sits close to the majority of its production base, management responsibilities or operating regions.<\/p>\n
Chief executive Ian Fillinger informed employees of the plan in a memorandum dated July 9, describing the Georgia office as Interfor\u2019s future primary hub for corporate and functional support. The office, located outside Atlanta, has been part of the company\u2019s network since 2014.<\/p>\n
Interfor has not disclosed which departments will be transferred, how many employees will be affected or when the process will be completed. Fillinger told staff that the move would not involve layoffs and that the company would retain a presence on the West Coast.<\/p>\n
The company has not publicly indicated whether its legal headquarters will also move to Georgia.<\/p>\n
Corporate structure catches up with production footprint<\/strong><\/p>\n Interfor presented the relocation primarily as an operational decision. Around three-quarters of its business is now located in Central, Eastern and Atlantic time zones, making Georgia a more practical base for supporting mills and commercial activities than an office operating on Pacific time.<\/p>\n That explanation also points to a deeper change in the company\u2019s structure. Interfor may still be closely associated with British Columbia, but most of its lumber production is no longer located there.<\/p>\n The company operates 28 manufacturing facilities with total annual capacity of approximately 4.4 billion board feet. According to its May 2026 corporate presentation, British Columbia represents only around 17% of that capacity.<\/p>\n Interfor\u2019s US operations in the Southeast and Pacific Northwest account for approximately 58%, while the remaining capacity is divided between British Columbia and the company\u2019s mills in Eastern and Atlantic Canada.<\/p>\n Georgia is therefore not being selected as a speculative base for future growth. It is being placed at the centre of a business whose production network has already moved south and east.<\/p>\n The change has taken place gradually. Interfor sold its coastal British Columbia sawmills in the early 2000s, reducing a regional presence that had once made the company one of the largest lumber producers on the province\u2019s coast. It subsequently expanded in the US Pacific Northwest and later built a much larger position in the US South through acquisitions and investment.<\/p>\n Over time, what had been a British Columbia lumber company with US assets became a North American producer whose largest concentration of capacity is now in the United States.<\/p>\n British Columbia remains part of the network<\/strong><\/p>\n Interfor still owns three sawmills in British Columbia, including Adams Lake, and there is no indication that the relocation of corporate functions will be followed by an immediate exit from the province.<\/p>\n The remaining B.C. mills are generally regarded as competitive operations. Harry Nelson, a professor of forest policy at the University of British Columbia, said the facilities have performed well relative to other mills and are likely to remain part of Interfor\u2019s portfolio regardless of where its main administrative functions are located.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s continued West Coast presence is therefore likely to be tied more closely to its operating assets than to its historic corporate identity.<\/p>\n For British Columbia, however, the symbolism is difficult to ignore. Interfor was built in the province and remained headquartered in Burnaby even as its acquisitions increasingly concentrated production elsewhere. Moving most senior and support functions to Georgia marks the point at which the corporate structure begins to resemble the company\u2019s actual asset base.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99439,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n