
DATE: Monday, June 9, 1997                  TAG: 9706070341

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: SMALL BUSINESS 

SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: EVERETS                           LENGTH:   65 lines

SAWMILL THRIVES IN THE SHADOW OF GIANTS

Kirk Lumber Co. didn't get to be a five-generation family-run lumber company by wasting wood.

They sell wood chips to horse farms for bedding. They sell mulch for gardens. They burn sawdust to make steam to dry lumber or to heat the company's office.

A co-generation plant the company built in 1993 produces extra electricity that is sold to Virginia Power.

``One thing we always try to point out is that we plant more trees each year than we harvest,'' says Lynn Rose, the corporation's secretary. Rose's great-grandfather, John J. Kirk, first built a sawmill and box factory in Everets in 1872.

Kirk Lumber has blended environmental stewardship with manufacturing efficiencies to enable it to find a niche in the lumber industry dominated by giants such as Union Camp and Georgia Pacific.

Though the company was officially established in 1924, John J. Kirk laid the foundation in 1872 when he traveled from Pennsylvania to Everets, a small town off Route 10 between Suffolk and Smithfield. Kirk and subsequent generations of the family based the business on what these days would be called ``vertical integration.''

The Kirks not only set up a sawmill, but began amassing land from which they could harvest trees.

``We've been able to cut on family land for a fair amount of what we need,'' Rose said. ``We try to have it on a cycle that you do not cut so heavy that you cut all at one time. We try to put it in with logs we buy from others.''

Kirk Lumber, instead of trying to compete with companies like Union Camp, works with them. Perhaps that is why it is the last of the sawmills that used to dot the landscape between Suffolk and Smithfield.

If Union Camp or Georgia Pacific needs pulpwood, Rose said Kirk Lumber will ``do everything we can'' to try to provide it. Likewise, if Kirk needs saw wood, those companies will try to provide it.

A few weeks ago, Union Camp had some ``beautiful pine logs'' that were too big to go through its mill, said B.R. Kirk, Rose's brother and Kirk Lumber's president. Kirk bought the logs from Union Camp and made quality lumber.

``Basically, there are cracks between the big guys and there's where we are,'' Kirk said. ``We're willing to fill an unusual order.''

B.R. Kirk, an industrial engineer, has helped modernize the business. In 1978, the company built a new mill and integrated machinery to handle the more dangerous and tedious jobs.

The company's desire to stay abreast of the newest technology is important, Kirk said, even though the lumber industry is known for being behind the curve. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

JOHN H. SHEALLY

The Virginian-Pilot

President B.R. Kirk, left, and secretary Lynn Rose stand by a log

mover.

HEADQUARTERS: Suffolk

LINES OF WORK: Lumber production

WHEN ORGANIZED: 1924

EMPLOYEES: 42

PRESIDENT: B.R. Kirk

THE CHAMBER SAYS: "Innovative, offers steady jobs."