LAC MEGANTIC, QC - Tafisa, a manufacturer of melamine panels and owner of North America's largest particleboard and decorative manufacturing facility, is celebrating its 20th anniversary and continuing to innovate, according to company CEO Louis Brassard.

“From the start we knew we had a design leadership position in the market,” Broussard said. “Over the years, we also nurtured a technological edge that enables us to consistently provide the best value products to our customers while maintaining our position as a world leader in the wood-based panel market.”

Tafisa, owned by Sonae Industria Group of Portugal, opened in 1992 with 60 workers and now employs 325. The company said more than $400 million has been invested in process improvements in its first two decades. In 2005, Tafisa invested $17 million to build its own wood recycling facility - Rewood. The Rewood facility can reportedly recycle up to  244,000 tons of diverted wood each year, the equivalent of about two million trees.

In April of 2006, Tafisa's plant was jolted by an explosion and fire that crippled its particleboard manufacturing capabilities. Less than two years later, Tafisa returned to full production.

Last year, Tafisa launched a campaign to inform customers about the carbon sink properties of wood based panels. Brassard said one cubic meter of wood panels stores the equivalent of one ton of carbon, making the panels effective long-term carbon stores. “Wood is the only building material with a positive impact on climate change,” Brassard said.

Tafisa's plant transforms more than 700 truckloads of wood fiber into 300 truckloads of panels each week. The company is FSC certified and offers decorative panels in more than 90 colors and six textures. Its new ALTO line of textured panels is available in 10 colors.