AYER, MA - Lumber and plywood firm Hood Industries, Inc., leased 74,240 square foot plant in Ayer, MA, allowing it to expand its custom milling operations.  

Hood Industries Inc. operates wood manufacturing and distribution concerns that include two plywood and three lumber manufacturing plants, and 18 specialty wood product distribution operations, located in 13 states serving the Northeast, Southeast and Southwest United States..

Ayer state-of-the-art, 24-foot - 32-foot clear, hi-bay facility is situated on nine acres of industrial zoned land, and features eight loading docks and one over-sized drive-in door. According to its agent, Hood Industries searched for five years for the property, which is serviced by a double rail spur.

Hood Industries' Ayer operation was founded in 1855 as Geo. McQuesten Company in Boston, when lumber was hand unloaded from schooners and timbers were dragged by horses. Acquired by Hood Industries in 1998, the Ayers location operates a timber sizer and planer used for custom milling, and inventories some $4.5 million in material.

Hood Industries was created in 1983 with the acquisition of a plywood manufacturing mill in Beaumont, Mississippi. It acquired two lumber manufacturing plants in Waynesboro, Mississippi and Coushatta, Louisiana and a plywood mill in Wiggins, Mississippi.

Expanding into distribution, Hood Industries acquired the McEwen Lumber Company, with 12 centers from International Paper in 1995. They later added two more centers from an acquired company in Arizona.