Manosh closes hardwood sawmill in Morrisville
by Kevin Kelley
Vermont Business Magazine
One of Lamoille County's oldest industries suffered a severe setback in December with the closing of the Manosh Hardwoods sawmill. The move resulted directly in 25 Vermonters losing their jobs but many more locals working in related businesses are likely to be negatively affected.
"It will have a big ripple effect," says Howard Manosh, the mills owner. He notes that 90 percent of the logs processed by his plant came from Lamoille County woodlands. Several loggers and their suppliers will thus be left without a key source of income.
"It wasnt an easy decision to make," Manosh says. But his mill had ceased to be financially viable due to a drop in prices for American hardwoods tied to an upsurge in imports of finished wood products from China. "The margins just werent there anymore," Manosh notes.
The mill sold dried and green lumber to a range of customers throughout the United States.
The 65,000-square-foot facility in Morrisville will remain idle until a buyer comes along - who almost certainly will not be in the sawmill business, Manosh says. The building is only seven years old, having been constructed as a replacement for a mill Manosh had owned in North Hyde Park that was destroyed in a fire.
"I couldnt see it coming," he says of the drop in American hardwood prices that forced the shutdown of the new mill. The market was thriving at the time that he decided to build the Morrisville plant, Manosh says.
He continues to operate a variety of businesses in Lamoille County, including Vermont Precision Hardwoods, a furniture factory specializing in production of high-end bedroom pieces. But the same global economic forces that snuffed the sawmill are threatening his furniture-making business as well, Manosh notes. Vermont Precision Hardwoods had 130 employees a few years ago; its workforce has fallen to 50 today.
The outlook for his furniture plant is not bright, Manosh acknowledges, adding, "We will put in every effort we can to keep it going."