Business Partners Expect Northern Michigan to Factor Into Wood Pellet Venture

BOYNE CITY -- From sourcing of raw materials to production to sales, three business partners in Kirtland Products expect Northern Michigan to factor significantly into their new wood pellet manufacturing venture. Kirtland hopes to have pellet production up and running by early December in Boyne City's Air Industrial Park. It will share a building at 1 Altair Drive with Arete Industries, an existing automotive supplier business in which the Kirtland partners are also involved. Those partners include Kirtland's chief executive officer Leon Tupper, president/chief operating officer Tom Monley and vice president Mike Lange. Wood pellets have seen increased demand internationally in recent years as a fuel for both home heating and electricity generation. Tupper noted that many consumers have added pellet burners as a secondary source of home heat as other fuel prices have trended upward. "We are seeing a great demand for pellets as an alternative to the oil based heating alternatives, " he said. Tupper noted statistics from a pellet-industry trade group that showed U. S. Domestic pellet shipments increasing from slightly more than half a million tons a year in 2003 to a projection of nearly 2 million tons for 2011, with annual shipments expected to reach 3 million tons by 2015. Kirtland initially will focus on supplying Northern Michigan customers with pellets for heating purposes, although the company sees opportunities for growth in other parts of the state as well. "One of the things we're focusing on is to be as local as we possibly can, " Monley said. Once production is established, Kirtland intends to begin offering on-site retail sales of pellets shortly thereafter. Customers will be able to purchase these six days a week, with vehicle-loading assistance available. The company also is working to develop wholesale distribution of the pellets. The idea for a business focused on a renewable fuel first occurred to Kirtland's owners in 2008 _ a time when the automotive industry was facing significant economic challenges _ and they then set out to develop strategy and line up financing. Kirtland Products takes its name from the Kirtland's warbler, a small songbird which typically spends spring and summer months in the northeastern Lower Peninsula and uses stands of young jack pine for a breeding habitat. Kirtland's pellets will be produced using some hardwoods along with soft woods such as jack pine, Tupper said. As suppliers harvest those trees, Tupper added that Kirtland plans to work with them on harvesting techniques that foster growth of new jack pines. Along with the availability of space at the Arete site, the partners saw a couple of other advantages to locating a wood pellet operation in Boyne City. For one, Tupper said there's availability of raw materials close by. These take the form of wood chips sourced from sawmills and logging concerns around the northern Lower Peninsula. In addition, "we have an excellent selection of labor in our area also that we wanted to take advantage of, " Tupper said. Kirtland is launching operations with a dozen employees, and Tupper expects the count could increase to 15 once the venture is in full swing. The quality of applicants _ more than 100 people pursued the original 12 jobs _ made narrowing the field a difficult task, Tupper said. The Kirtland partners intend to operate the business on a year-round basis. To keep busy at times of year when demand for heating fuel is lower, they're eyeing a couple of other wood product possibilities _ including horse bedding and flavored pellets to fuel pellet grills. While only a single-digit percentage of the money which consumers invest in fossil-based heating fuels typically remains in their regional economy, Tupper noted that 75 percent of the funds relating to a biomass fuel operation such as Kirtland re-circulate locally. "We think that is a statistic that works well for all of the parties, our suppliers as well as our customers and employees, " he said. Source: petoskeynews.com