Farewell to Idaho Veneer
Brandon and Rosemarie Simkins on Tuesday peruse hand tools that were up for bid in an Idaho Veneer Company auction. Idaho Veneer is closing its doors after 67 years in business.
DEVIN WEEKS/Press
This wood slicer that creates thin sheets of wood veneer is one of countless items Idaho Veneer Company auctioned off this week as it prepared to close its doors. (DEVIN WEEKS/Press)
Idaho Veneer Company co-owners and brothers John, left, and Pat Malloy discuss a few memories from their lives working together at the iconic Post Falls business during an interview Tuesday. Idaho Veneer, which sliced white pine for veneers and produced other lumber items, will be closing this summer after nearly 70 years. (DEVIN WEEKS/Press)
Family-run Post Falls company closing after 67 years
POST FALLS — A chapter of Post Falls' storied, saw-dusty history is closing.
Idaho Veneer Company at 704 E. Fourth Ave., established in 1953, announced in April it would cease production within 90 days.
"We are shutting down. We’re closing," John Malloy, who owns the company with brothers Pat and Dan, said Tuesday. "The pieces of the puzzle fell together. The market for the veneer industry has not been good, since 2008, probably, with the previous economic collapse. As you can see, we’re of the age where it’s about the time to retire.”
John said talks of selling the property have been in the works for about three years. He said the city expressed its expectations to build 3,000 more residential units in the downtown area in Post Falls.
"That might be kind of hard when there is a 50-acre mill site in the middle of it,” he said. “It just seemed like all the planets aligned.”
The company was founded to slice knotty Idaho white pine veneer for various industries. In '53, John F. Gregor and his sons-in-law, brothers Bob and Leonard Malloy, broke ground on what would grow to become a large family-run veneer production complex and beloved community player. Gregor retired in '76, followed by Bob about 14 years later. That left ownership to Leonard and his three boys.
"Each of us of the family, we worked here in the summertimes when we were in high school,” John said. "We worked here as kids. Actually, it was probably before high school, because we would cut weeds and shovel sawdust and paint buildings."
Sixty-seven years is a long time to be in business. It’s also a good stretch of time to get to know employees and build a true sense of family within an organization.
Paul Bucher worked as a slicer operator for 43 of those years. He said what kept him at Idaho Veneer so long was that strong sense that he was more than just an employee.
"In 2001, I had a motorcycle accident. Things were pretty tough. My wife also had surgery. And one day I go out and my car is full of groceries. Nobody explained who did it. I had a feeling it had come from the owners,” Bucher said. "From when I first started working here, I knew they were good people.”
That Idaho Veneer way of taking care of others was a company concept from the beginning. John said in the early days, when the Post Falls Fire Department was all volunteer, many of those volunteers were Idaho Veneer workers.
“Whenever the horn would go off on their pagers, everybody shut down and ran to fight fire,” he said.
The company was also close with the local Lions Club, a service organization, because so many of the workers were Lions. Idaho Veneer owned the land all the way to the Lions Club Haunted House.
"We donated that haunted house," said Terry Newcomb, Idaho Veneer CFO.
Another effort Idaho Veneer contributed to was community firewood.
"This empty field next to the fire department, we used to take all our dead wood over there that arrived, and then the community would come down and chop wood in the winter," Newcomb said. "Anybody that wanted to. It worked wonderful for years and years."
In the old days, on pay day and with no bank in town, "the workers would run out to the Falls Cafe, and the owner of the Falls Cafe would cash their checks for them," John said.
"It was convenient for the workers, but it made it nice to have a pocketful of cash while they’re standing in his restaurant," he said.
Dan said Idaho Veneer appreciates all the people who contributed their talents to the company. At one point 600 people — workers and family members — were on the company's insurance. They didn't give a number for those who were being let go with the closure, but attrition from the troubled market had been reducing staff sizes for years, and many employees are ready for retirement as well, the brothers explained.
"There’s a lot of people and families that have worked here over 67 years," Dan said.
"Some have worked in excess of 40 years here, so we do become like a family,” Pat added. "We have a bunch of good people."
