Working Forest Staff Jim Boniferro of Boniferro Mill Works in Sault Ste. Marie was presented with the Entrepreneur of the Year award at the Northern Ontario business awards held in the Sault in October.

In March 2003, Boniferro teamed up with hardwood lumber specialist, Fox Lumber Sales of Montana following the decision of Domtar to close the sawmill he was managing.

Today, Boniferro can look back with a strong sense of achievement over his reopening of the sawmill under the name of Boniferro Mill Works Inc. Thirty employees returned to their jobs and began production on the hardwood line.

When the project began the mill was budgeted for $5 million in capital investments over five years. In December of 2003 Boniferro was ahead of schedule installing a new saw line and today the total cost of upgrading the mill is tallied at $1.87 million with plans to expand in the future.

Boniferro looks for ways to market the mill’s by-products: he has an arrangement with Domtar to purchase all of the hardwood pulp material the mill produces: hog fuel is sold to St. Marys Paper, and G.P. Flakeboard is purchasing the mill’s sawdust and shavings for medium density fibreboard manufacturing.

Currently the mill operates with one shift of 65 employees and produces 17 million board feet annually. In 2003 the mill generated $10 million in sales and is expected to earn between $17 and $20 million by the end of 2004.

(reprinted from The Working Forest Newspaper - www.workingforest.com)