The Teal Jones Plain Dealing sawmill in north Bossier Parish now has a Japanese majority partner.
Sumitomo Forestry America made their 100% purchase of Teal Jones’ Louisiana Holdings, LLC, official at their Tokyo board meeting at midnight CST Friday, March 28.
In purchasing Teal Jones Louisiana Holdings, LLC, Sumitomo now owns 57.05% in Project Horntail, LLC which owns Teal Jones Plain Dealing, LLC which owns and operates the sawmill.
Documents show that Sumitomo paid $42 million for their ownership of Teal Jones Louisiana Holdings, LLC., and that the contract will be signed on March 31.
The closing is conditional on court approval in the U.S. and Canada. Officials say no issues are anticipated.
It is a major deal, said local timber owner and attorney Rich Lamb, who was a driving force behind construction of the mill and ongoing investment there.
Parent company Sumitomo Forestry Ltd. of Tokyo is a major international player in timber and building materials, and housing and housing-related businesses. With their holdings, the company is the 6th largest builder of multifamily units, and the 8th largest builder of single-family residential units in the U.S.
Global reach of the $6.5 billion company includes businesses in Asia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, as well as the U.S. Sumitomo-owned companies. Their affiliated builders are currently in 40 U.S. cities.
Timber products being used in new home construction.
Travis Spradling
“These are long term partners. They’ve done probably 15, 20 deals, big deals in the US. They have a huge industrial arm. These guys are impressive,” Lamb said they have “big plans” for their new investment.
Sumitomo, whose corporate slogan is “Happiness grows on trees”, entered the U.S. housing market in 2003 and has seen steady growth, along the way becoming an attractive choice to corporate investors including The Vanguard Group, Fidelity Management & Research Co., and BlackRock Fund Advisors.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has recently increased its holdings in Sumitomo Corp., part of the Sumitomo Group that owns Sumitomo Forestry.
With their 57% interest, Sumitomo Forestry will be using the Southern yellow pine products produced there. The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate has learned that Sumitomo has just now placed a lumber order for their Trussworks facility located in Caldwell, Texas.
“What makes this mill unique is it has three lines, a large log line, a small log line, and a head rig so that could do a variety of cuts that not all mills can do, and that has the capacity to produce 300 million board feet a year, 300 million,” Lamb said. That means the mill will be buying 1.3 million tons of raw timber per year at full capacity—good news to locals with trees to harvest.
The Teal Jones Plain Dealing mill, March 27, 2025.
Teal Jones-Plain Dealing, LLC
Lamb said that ramped up production will also mean a second shift will be starting at the $143 million plant, hopefully by late summer. He said they are hiring now, and expect to need 65 to 90 more workers to join the roughly 60 employees currently at the mill.
Management there will remain the same, he said, and predominantly Caddo-Bossier investors still control 43% of the Project Horntail, LLC holding company.
With the investment comes the possibility of even more growth. There are 88 currently unused acres that are a part of the mill’s 241 acre footprint that Lamb says, “Could be appealing to any vertically integrated wood products business that is inclined to grow.”
The plant is the largest international investment in Bossier Parish history, says Bossier Parish Tax Assessor Bobby Edmiston. Greater Bossier Economic Development Executive Director Rocky Rockett believes it is the largest industrial investment in the parish, as well.
Lamb is excited and relieved to be able to share the news with investors and the public. “Let’s just say that Japanese businessmen in Plain Dealing have not gone unnoticed.”
AloJapan.com