Sharon Webb

Timber World is set to expand its operations following the purchase of MacLaine Enterprises’ timber mill in Deloraine.

Currently located in Meander and Hobart, Timber World will establish a third branch in Deloraine, signalling an expansion in functions, products and staff.

Managing director Bronte Booth said the Meander site had reached capacity.

‘It will be good to move closer to our customers in Deloraine, Launceston and Devonport and to be closer to transport routes,’ he said.

‘With the new site we’ll have the capacity to produce more timber products, especially because we’ll have a kiln-drying facility which we haven’t had before.

‘In addition to sawn timber, Timber World now takes products from the stump to the ridge cap, with transportable homes, joinery and machined timbers.

‘Buying MacLaines’ mill wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work and dedication of our staff in Hobart and Meander.’

Bronte said the expansion meant Timber World was likely to employ more staff, adding to the current 14 in Meander and nine in Hobart.

Bronte’s father, Kim Booth, who established Timber World’s Meander site, said he was proud of the progress the family business had made under Bronte’s leadership.

‘Our aim is to become an example of an environmentally sustainable business in the timber industry,’ he said.

‘We’re advocating for more sound forestry practices too. The majority of our timber processing is in plantation softwoods and some hardwoods.

‘We’re also using high value native forest timbers which are unfortunately wasted currently by chipping or burning.’

The Booths thanked Hugh MacLaine for selling the mill to them but Hugh said he will still be around the site.

‘Timber World agreed to lease me some sheds, yard space and the kiln, so I’ll still be producing flooring for the Victorian and Tasmanian markets.’

Deloraine’s sawmill has a generational family story, so the Booths should feel right at home.

Believed to have been established in the 1930s by George Sulzberger, it was carried on by his son, Charlie, who bought it back from the banks after WW2.

The mill was owned in the 1980s by a Victorian company but moved back into local family hands in 1991 when it was bought by Hugh’s grandfather Neville Wray.

Neville sold it to Kevin Morgan in 1997, but Hugh brought it back into the MacLaine family in 2004.

Since then, the MacLaines have transformed the site with new dry milling equipment, adding a kiln and renovating sheds, and subdividing the property into seven titles.

Despite that Hugh said, ‘I don’t get too attached to things. For me, selling the sawmill is a business decision.’