Midwest Forest Products Company is a privately held corporation that is actively involved in pulpwood processing and procurement, inventory management, chipping, trucking, and timberland management. Its primary focus is providing wood fiber to the paper industry. Midwest Forest Products Company is based in Hayward, Wisconsin, the state which produces more paper than any other state in the country. Midwest pioneered the concept of portable ring debarking and chipping services where debarking quality is a primary goal.
1977
The company was established in 1977, when Ken Maki, along with a plywood industry executive, partnered to provide high quality debarked pulpwood to two paper mills in Wisconsin. The business was based around a Portable Manitowoc Ring Debarker, which was developed by Maki while he was employed as a Wood Procurement Manager for Procter and Gamble Paper Products Company.
1994
In the course of its business history, the company has operated four chip mills, four portable debarkers, a portable chip mill, and a major softwood sawmill. They have developed an extensive pulpwood and log procurement system, as well as a large trucking operation. When his partner retired in 1994, Maki purchased the remaining shares of the company.
2020
Ken Maki retired, and sold the company to his son Eric, who came to work for the company in 1997.
debarkers + chip mills
Midwest Forest Products Company has the capability to purchase pulpwood in 32 or more remote pulpwood accumulation yards in Wisconsin and Michigan. The company has supplied pulpwood and chips to major pulp and paper companies in the Lake States, Canada and New England, the Southeast, and currently has supply contracts in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
Midwest serves its remote woodyards with two portable debarkers, and has the ability to operate debarking and chipping mills.
INDUSTRY
LEADER
Midwest Forest Products Company has earned a reputation for consistently producing the highest quality debarked and/or chipped products in any given market served. It routinely supplies pulpwood with less than one half of 1 percent bark in its products. This expertise has been developed over the years due to the strict quality requirements of the sulfite pulping industry in the Lake States.
The company’s experience, expertise, and production capacity make it a leader in this industry.