Sale to Tioga Hardwoods complete, all employees are now “employee-owners”
From Whitesville Wood Products,
In 2004 Jim Fitzpatrick purchased the facility that is now Whitesville Wood Products at auction. Jim wanted jobs in the local community and looked at the facility as an opportunity to create jobs as well as add tax revenue locally. Well-known in the Whitesville community, Jim successfully developed many other businesses including Fitzpatrick Poultry Farms, a hog farm, Fitzpatrick Cable, and a Days Inn hotel in Corning, NY, which he redeveloped with his son as the Downtown Corning Hilton Garden Inn.
Since 2005 Whitesville Wood Products has been making quality hardwood lumber that has been shipped all over the world. Bill Meunier and the team he assembled built kilns, buildings, and equipment to produce lumber on the site. At times custom drying for other companies, steaming walnut, heat treating industrial wood products, crane mat production has all been a part of making Whitesville Wood products what it is today. Whitesville Wood Products buys hardwood lumber from local sawmills, kiln dries, grades, and packages for shipment. Many families in the area depend on the plant for not only lumber purchasing but all related jobs that lead up to the lumber production and shipment. Landowners, loggers, sawmill suppliers, sawmill operators, truckers, maintenance supplies, Fuel suppliers, shipping companies along with many other related businesses. The relationship of one small business in the community and surrounding communities has a very large effect on the economics in those communities.
For many years there has been a partnership on the sales and operational side of the business with Tioga Hardwoods Inc based in Berkshire NY. Tioga Hardwoods has a similar facility but has a much more progressive sales presence in the world markets. Tioga Hardwoods was started in 2000 and currently produces 11 million feet of hardwood lumber each year. We also trade lumber from the USA and Canada. Tioga offers added value with ripped to width lumber and surfacing. Tioga Hardwoods has been the main customer for the Whitesville yard for the past 15 years.
In July of this year the Fitzpatrick family agreed to sell the yard to Tioga Hardwoods to secure the long-term future of the company in the Whitesville community. We retained all employees and plan production increases. Tioga Hardwoods appreciates the trust the Fitzpatrick family has placed in them and all of what Jim Fitzpatrick has done in building the company as well as the faith he had in his community. It was a pleasure working with Jim along with the team at Whitesville Wood Products. Tioga feels the next generation of operations managers is already on site and looks forward to growing both production and employment at this location.
Tioga Hardwoods Inc. is an employee-owned company. In November of 2023 Tioga Hardwoods converted from a privately held company to an ESOP. This change has solidified the future of the company. The employees at Whitesville Wood Products now move into the position of employee owners.
