“We pride ourselves on the value of each member of our team and their contribution to Partap’s success and growth over the years,” ~ Jaspal Grewal, Owner, Partap Forest Products
A leader in high-quality forest products since their inception in 2004, Partap Group in Surrey, BC, has seen significant growth in a short period of time. With a remanufacturing facility in Maple Ridge, BC, offering a full range of quality Western Red Cedar products from baluster to timbers, the company has introduced its primary sawmill in Surrey, located here.
The Grewal family, that owns and operates the Partap Group, immigrated from India in 1992, and started in the forest products industry in 1993. The Grewal brothers opened the remanufacturing facility in 2004, now the family business has welcomed in its second generation with Jaspal’s nephew, Gurinder Grewal.
Partap’s newest investment is a commitment to their goal to produce the finest forest products for their customers. Operations Manager, Jones Choo, explained, “This sawmill was redesigned and rebuilt to produce high quality lumber from sustainably sourced logs. It was an old mill and when it was purchased it was a financial and time investment to get it operational again. There have been some significant improvements. The biggest improvement was an addition of a timber deck last year to allow us to cut timbers directly at the sawmill and trim them with a separate outfeed. That was a capital investment and a big change for this sawmill.”
Owner Jaspal Grewal said there are two distinctive product lines at the new mill. “Hemlock and Western Red Cedar are the primary focus of this mill,” he explained. “We are cutting traditional Cedar products whether it is 4×4’s, decking or appearance grade timbers up to 12×12. Most of the products that we cut at the Bridgeview Sawmill are processed at our reman in Maple Ridge. We also have a dry kiln program with a dry kiln facility based in Chilliwack. There are 12 kilns there and that operation primarily does custom drying, but any internal leads will be dried there as well.”
Grewal added, “The focus for Partap is from the forest to finished product. The primary customer base that we are targeting is wholesale distribution. We are processing over 140 million board feet annually and running 50 trucks daily. There’s a separate by-products division for chips and hog fuel, a lumber division and an export container division.”
He continued, “The sawmill was redesigned and rebuilt to produce high quality lumber from sustainably sourced logs. We are developing new methods each day to extract the highest value from each log while staying true to the zero-waste process. The mill specializes in recovering lumber from logs sourced through open markets for remanufacture as well as high quality timbers.”
While the business has grown exponentially since its inception, the core values of the family-owned and operated business have not changed. “We pride ourselves on the value of each member of our team and their contribution to Partap’s success and growth over the years,” Grewal said. “With the ability to control the production process from logs to lumber, we are able to employ high quality control practices resulting in the most sustainable Western Red Cedar and Hemlock forest products for our clients.
Our remanufacturing facility is well equipped to produce the highest quality value-added forest products. The plant is equipped with two high speed planers and a moulder/chop line, allowing us to produce a wide range of Western Red Cedar and Hemlock products for all markets. We continue to invest in developing an efficient and sustainable process through which we create any product ranging from balusters and fencing to posts and timbers.”
“The Grewal family is continuously making investments investments in the facilities to add value and become more efficient,” said Choo. “There is a desire from this family to grow this business and to set a high standard.”
While continued growth is in the plans for Partap Group, Grewal said adapting to change as it happens is key. “The forest profile is changing so there is a strategic planning process within our company about that change. Our approach is community driven and family-oriented. If everyone in the family and the family being our partners, customers and vendors is taken care of, the product and every other aspect will come together.”
Partap Forest Products is a member of the North American Wholesale Lumber Association, Western Red Cedar Lumber Association, BC Wood Association, and Independent Wood Processors Association.
For more information visit www.partap.ca.
