Association coopérative forestière de Saint-Elzéar

What Association coopérative forestière de Saint-Elzéar does

Association coopérative forestière de Saint-Elzéar, doing business as Scierie St-Elzéar inc., is a worker-owned forestry cooperative headquartered at 204 route du Moulin in Saint-Elzéar, in the Gaspésie region of Québec, Canada. Founded in 1944 as the Syndicat des travailleurs de St-Elzéar and reorganized into its present cooperative form on October 19, 1964, it is the oldest forestry cooperative in Québec (75 years in 2019, 80 years in 2024) and groups together workers interested in forestry operations, forest management, and the transformation of forest products.

The cooperative operates a single-site sawmill that converts regional softwood logs into dimensional lumber (bois d'œuvre). After two facility fires (1971 and 1979), the current factory was built in 1980 and has been continuously modernized — including a 1996 expansion that added a two-unit kiln dryer, an optimizer edger, and an automatic sorter with integrated fire protection; a 2003 optimized edger; a 2005 curve-sawing system; sawing-line improvements during 2015–2019; a 2018 drying cell; and a 2022 new planing mill and garage. The cooperative divested its cedar shingle operations in 1988 to concentrate on dimension lumber. Technical operations include log intake, sawing, kiln drying, optimizing, planing, and automated sorting; no proprietary software stack or digital platform beyond standard controls is disclosed.

Revenue is generated through direct sales of lumber to enterprise customers (sales_led GTM) at the mill site. Pricing is not publicly disclosed; transactions appear to be one-time lumber sales rather than recurring contracts. Customers are cooperative members and regional buyers, with distribution limited to Canada (specifically the Gaspésie market). The management team is led by General Manager Christian Bourdages and includes directors for sales (Mario Pouliot), administration (Serge Bouchard), and HR (Marc Anderson), plus plant and forest superintendents. The cooperative is member-governed and affiliated with the FQCF provincial federation and the Association coopérative forestière régionale de la Gaspésie, alongside industry partners CIFQ and QuebecWood and local development partners SADC Bonaventure and CLE Bonaventure.

Name

Association coopérative forestière de Saint-Elzéar

Legal name

Scierie St-Elzéar inc.

Website

https://scieriestelzear.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1944

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Association coopérative forestière de Saint-Elzéar (Scierie St-Elzéar) is a worker-owned forestry cooperative founded in 1944 in Saint-Elzéar, Québec, operating a modernized sawmill that produces dimensional lumber for regional enterprise customers and cooperative members across the Gaspésie region.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Lumber Manufacturing

NAICS

Sawmills (321113), Sawmills and Wood Preservation (3211)

SIC

Sawmills & Planting Mills, General (2421), Lumber & Wood Products (No Furniture) (2400)

akta.pro primary industry

Softwood Lumber Sawmills (IMAMABAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Planing Mills & Lumber Surfacing (IMAMABAE)

Keywords

• Forestry cooperative services
• Lumber manufacturing
• Sawmill operations
• Dimensional lumber production
• Wood processing

Headquarters

HQ city

Saint-Elzéar

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Lumber and wood products: The cooperative generates revenue through the production and sale of lumber and wood products, including dimensional lumber and processed wood from their sawmill operations.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

The cooperative operates a sawmill (Scierie St-Elzéar) that processes raw timber into dimensional lumber through sawing, kiln drying, edging, sorting, and planing operations. It also performs upstream forestry operations and forest management as part of its integrated value chain. The primary sellable output is construction-grade dimensional lumber (bois d'œuvre) sold directly from the mill to regional customers and cooperative members in the Gaspésie region of Quebec.

Product overview

The Association coopérative forestière de Saint-Elzéar operates as a forestry cooperative sawmill (Scierie St-Elzéar) producing lumber (bois d'œuvre) as its primary product. The cooperative's current factory was built in 1980 with ongoing modernizations since then. The company processes timber through sawing, drying (kilns), and planing operations to produce finished lumber products for construction and other sectors.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Bois d'œuvre (Dimensional Lumber) The cooperative's primary product — dimensional lumber produced from the sawmill operation. The factory specializes in processing wood of various diameters into construction-grade lumber through sawing, kiln drying, edging, automatic sorting, and planing. Since divesting cedar shingle equipment in 1988, the sawmill has focused solely on dimensional lumber production for regional construction and wood-product customers.
• Forestry Operations and Forest Management Services Upstream forestry activities performed by the cooperative as part of its integrated value chain, including forestry operations (forestry superintendent, Emeric Stentz) and forest management and planning (forest engineer, Jonathan Synnott). These activities support sustainable timber sourcing for the sawmill's lumber production and are part of the cooperative's stated mission to create employment in forestry operations, forest management, and forest product transformation.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• CIFQ (Conseil de l'industrie forestière du Québec)minorOthersListed as a partner organization, relationship details not specified.
• CCBDC (Centre de congrès de Bonaventure Développement commercial)minorOthersListed as a partner organization on contact page.
• Association coopérative forestière régionale de la GaspésiecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerRegional forest cooperative alliance providing network and support within the Gaspésie region.
• FQCF (Fédération des coopératives forestières du Québec)minorOthersListed as a partner; represents the provincial federation of forest cooperatives.
• SADC BonaventureminorOthersListed as a partner; a local development agency supporting the regional economy.
• CLE Bonaventure (Centre local d'emploi)minorOthersListed as a partner; local employment center in Bonaventure.
• QuebecWoodminorOthersListed as a partner; provincial wood industry promotion organization.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves15 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Market position

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/scieriestelzear
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/association-coop%C3%A9rative-foresti%C3%A8re-de-saint-elz%C3%A9ar

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Association coopérative forestière de Saint-Elzéar