Martco, LLC, the parent company of the third-generation, family-owned timber sourcing and manufacturing company RoyOMartin, announced it will invest $9.5 million to install technologically advanced production equipment at its Natchitoches Parish lumber mill in Louisiana.
The RoyOMartin plywood manufacturing facility in Chopin is one of the parish’s largest employers, and the expansion will allow the company to retain approximately 684 existing jobs through 2035.
The equipment upgrades will add cutting-edge vision and robotics among other technological enhancements, resulting in faster and more efficient production of plywood, timbers and boards.
“RoyOMartin-Plywood manufacturing facility continues to modernize its operations to be competitive in the future,” RoyOMartin Chairman, CEO and CFO Roy O. Martin III said. “The plywood mill has been in continuous operation since 1996 and has survived the Great Recession, COVID pandemic and other harsh obstacles without downtime. The team leaders and team members at this facility deserve the job sustainability and security that this project and previous modernization projects provide.”
Martco is a subsidiary of Martin Sustainable Resources, an equity investment company privately held by the family of the Roy O. Martin Lumber Company founder, Roy O. Martin, Sr. The company began operations in 1923 as a single small sawmill in Alexandria; it now owns nearly 550,000 acres of timberland that supplies raw material to manufacturing facilities in Chopin and Oakdale, La., and Corrigan, Texas. Its corporate headquarters remains in Alexandria almost a century later.
