Production at the shuttered Structurlam timber plant in Conway, Tenn. resumed Thursday, June 15, after Mercer Mass Timber of Canada took ownership of the facility.

Mercer, a division of global timber producer Mercer International Inc., purchased the Conway factory and another plant in British Columbia, Canada, from Structurlam Mass Timber Corp. for $81.1 million.

According to a June 16 Arkansas Democrat Gazette report, Brian Merwin, senior vice president of Mercer, has been at the Faulkner County factory for days to oversee the manufacturing restart. The 288,000-square-foot timber plant abruptly shut down in January after Walmart cancelled the facility's largest contract. About 145 production employees were laid off immediately.

Manufacturing resumed under the Mercer brand Thursday, though the new owners -- when the deal was under consideration -- already had placed an order in May for the plant to produce glued laminated timber (glulam), leading to the rehiring of about 20 line workers.

"As we started moving through the acquisition process and once we knew we were the stalking-horse buyer ... we actually gave one of our glulam orders to bring a few of the folks back to work in Conway," Merwin told the newspaper. About 40 employees now work at the plant. "We are producing some product in the factory today and we will be producing product in the plant next week."

The sale of Structurlam to Mercer International closed on June 15, 2023. The acquisition will materially increase the existing mass timber production capacity at Mercer Mass Timber and cement our position as a leading producer of mass timber products. Mercer Mass Timber now holds all of Structurlam’s brand assets, product and project portfolios, and intellectual property. Both the Conway and Penticton facilities will remain open and operational.