‘It was the nail in the coffin’: Industry expert reacts to Perry West Fraser Sawmill closure

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - Economic uncertainty is growing in Taylor County after the loss of another major employer.

A West Fraser spokesperson confirmed last week the company’s sawmill would permanently shut down.

The announcement came about six months after Perry’s Foley Cellulose Mill closed its doors.

Most of the workers at the Fraser Mill had already been laid off back in January 2023, when the company decided to scale down operations.

“Prior to the indefinite curtailment announcement in January 2023, the Perry Sawmill employed approximately 126 people,” a spokesperson told WCTV via email.

The spokesperson said there was a “small crew kept onsite to maintain the mill” but that those employees would work their last shift at the end of March.

Nearly 700 jobs were lost in Taylor County between the West Fraser Sawmill closure and Georgia Pacific’s Foley Cellulose Mill closure. Now, local leaders are scrambling to find good jobs to bring to the community.

“I don’t know of anything concrete yet, but we’re hoping that something good will come out of this,” Taylor County Commissioner Thomas Demps told WCTV. “With West Fraser closing and GP leaving town—it’s devastating.”

Don Curtis has worked in the forest industry for 45 years. Currently, he serves as president of The Forestry Company based in Perry. He told WCTV it’s not just Perry that is seeing this mill closure trend.

“In the last two years, six mills have closed down in Florida—two pulp mills, two pine sawmills and two hardwood mills,” Curtis said. “And it almost feels like we’re in a freefall in the forestry business.”

Curtis said the closure of Perry’s cellulose mill and now its sawmill have devastated logging companies in Perry and surrounding areas. Now that both mills are closed, Curtis believes it’s unlikely Taylor County’s timber industry can be revived.

“It was the nail in the coffin,” he said. “We’re having loggers go under --third generation logging companies going out of business.”

A West Fraser spokesperson cited high fiber costs and a low price commodity environment as reasons for closing the sawmill.

Community members’ hopes of Georgia Pacific selling its Perry cellulose mill were diminished in February when the company announced the mill could remain closed for a year or more as GP evaluated the site.

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