Manufacturing Bathurst startup gets helping hand from province, ACOA

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John Pollack
Telegraph-Journal

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The president of a relatively new and unique New Brunswick business says starting up wouldn't have been possible without help from government.

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Glen Vienneau/for The Telegraph-Journal

Pierre Friolet, president of Future Alternative Wood Products Ltds. in Bathurst, holds thermally modified lumber produced at his Bathurst company. The process of burning the outer surface of the wood improves its colour and increases resistance to rot.

Pierre Friolet, president of Bathurst-based Future Alternative Wood Products Ltd., was present Tuesday when Business New Brunswick Minister Greg Byrne announced the government has pitched in a $246,000 loan guarantee to help start up the company.

This was a prerequisite to Future Alternative Wood Products' $600,000 bank loan.

"The banks will not touch anything like this without government assistance," says Friolet.

He says that's because it's a new product in a niche market.

The company heat-treats wood to improve its colour, structural stability and to stop it from rotting.

Along with Tuesday's loan guarantee announcement came a $100,000 provincial government grant from the Restigouche-Chaleur Economic Development Fund.

Friolet's company also received a half-million dollar no-interest loan from ACOA, announced in early September.

"It's certainly important for government to assist companies in access to capital," says Byrne. "(And) we're supporting job creation."

The company has hired seven people to operate the machinery and will be hiring another five.

On top of $1.2 million in grants and loans, Future Alternative Wood Products has another $1.1 million coming from private investors and Friolet's own pockets.

"We dumped everything in (from) everywhere we could scrape up some money," says Friolet. He wouldn't reveal who the private investors are.

When Friolet looks to the current stock market situation, he's glad he invested his money in starting up his own business.

"I'd rather be in control of my own destiny," he says.

The company, which has clients in New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and British Colombia, is the only one of its kind in Atlantic Canada, and one of only five in North America. Future Alternative Wood Products treats exclusively hardwood and in greater volume than any other company in the world.

But being such a new company, it has yet to turn a profit. Friolet figures it will be about a year to 18 months from its June 1, 2008, start date before it operates in the black, but he's confident it will work out.

"I wouldn't do it if I didn't think this is going to pan out," he says.

Getting his business off the ground wasn't easy. He started working at it in June 2005 and tried to get support multiple times, initially with a lot of negative feedback, before finally landing it.

Byrne is enthusiastic about the new firm's prospects.

"They've got an innovative product, and (are) environmentally friendly," says Byrne. "Here you have a new company that's starting up that's looking also potentially at export markets."

Two weeks ago Friolet met with a Japanese broker. Though no deal has been struck yet, Friolet is hopeful about the potential. The broker was familiar with heat-treated wood from its Finnish origin, but Friolet has something different.

"What he was interested in is that we (are) treating hardwood," he says. "You end up with a higher-end product with the hardwoods."