The Canadian maker of Xtendex-brand composite deck and railing has shut down operations and plans to auction its extrusion lines and injection molding presses this month.
Barrie, Ontario-based Carney Timber Co. is a subsidiary of Tacoma, Wash.-based lumber company McFarland Cascade. The shuttered, 145,000-square-foot plant employed 60.
The company is selling 10 extrusion lines, two injection molding machines and auxiliary equipment at an Aug. 15 auction.
Xtendex decking, which according to McFarland Cascade officials had about 3-4 percent of the North American composite decking market, was made from virgin high density polyethylene and rice hulls.
High energy costs in Canada, combined with a weakened U.S. dollar, prompted McFarland Cascade officials to pull the plug on the operations in Barrie, said Gregory Phillips, the company's consumer product line manager.
There is enough Xtendex inventory, Phillips said, to last through 2008. The company will continue to market and sell the product as it pursues a new manufacturing channel to resume Xtendex production more competitively.
``Currently, we are seeking proposals from manufacturers in North America and overseas,'' he said in a news release. ``The composites market is a crowded one, with many lower-cost, lower-quality options that have better name recognition. The consumer is not yet fully educated on the benefits of a higher-quality, more expensive product.
``For these reasons, we determined it was best for us to exit the market at this time, and look for another opportunity to produce the product less expensively in the future.''
