Employees at Roseburg Forest Products work March 9 at the Riddle engineered wood mill.

Roseburg Forest Products plans to invest $700 million over the next four years to upgrade and expand its manufacturing operations in Southern Oregon, including the creation of two new manufacturing plants and upgrading its existing plants in Douglas and Coos counties, company officials announced Friday.

The two new plants, both located in Dillard, are expected to begin operations in 2025 and employ about 120 people, company officials said.

The projects would represent the largest investment in manufacturing in rural Oregon, and one of the largest private capital investments of any kind in the state’s history, company officials said. They made the announcement Friday morning at a press conference at the Douglas County Fairgrounds.

“Across the business, Roseburg is embracing advanced manufacturing and leveraging new technology and methods to make our current products and develop new ones, with the goal of ensuring we remain competitive in the global market,” Roseburg President and CEO Grady Mulbery said in a statement. “I want to thank our partners at the governor’s office and Douglas and Coos counties for helping make this historic investment possible.”

The proposed investment includes two new highly technical manufacturing plants at the company’s complex in Dillard, according to officials.

One plant will use wood residuals from the company’s other local mills as well as regional mill suppliers to manufacture standard medium-density fiberboard panels, known as MDF panels, as well as thin high-density fiberboard, known as HDF, company officials said. The HDF products are used in cabinetry, doors and other applications.

“HDF is a new product for Roseburg that meets growing customer demand for domestically manufactured panels of increasing thinness and strength,” Mulbery said in his statement. “Dillard MDF will be one of the most technologically advanced plants of its kind in the world, and it alone represents $450 million of our $700 million investment.”

Another Dillard plant will convert specialty MDF panels manufactured at the company’s MDF plant in Medford, into the product Armorite trim, which is a finished exterior trim used for residential and shed use. The company plans to invest about $50 million in this plant.

Combined, the two plants will be able to produce 175 million square feet of MFD panels, 70 million square feet of exterior trim and 90 million square feet of interior trim annually, company officials said.

The remaining $200 million of the investment will go toward improvements at existing Oregon plants over the next four years, including:

• Upgrades at the plywood plant in Riddle, including two new lathe lines and a new hardwood plywood line.
• A new dryer at the RFP plywood plant in Coquille.

“These operations are all key parts of our integrated platform in Oregon, starting with our timberlands, and including our primary processing plants making lumber and plywood, as well as our secondary plants that use wood residuals like sawdust and chips to make value-added products such as MDF, ensuring the full utilization of our precious timber resource,” Eric Geyer, Roseburg Forest Products’ director of government affairs, said in the statement.

Last June, the company said it was exploring the feasibility of locating an additional MDF plant or other residual-based operation within its western operating footprint. That study, combined with a years-long strategic assessment of company operations across the state, resulted in the decision to make the investment in Southern Oregon, company officials said.

“Not only are we proud of our long history in this region, but our focus on advanced manufacturing and innovative technology makes us an excellent fit for the future of Oregon’s manufacturing sector as well,” Mulbery said in the statement. “Our use of robotics, computer programming, and other advanced manufacturing tools aligns Roseburg with the high-tech evolution of manufacturing in this state.”

Roseburg Forest Products was founded in Roseburg in 1936. It is a privately owned company and one of North America’s leading producers of particleboard, medium density fiberboard and thermally fused laminates. The company owns and manages more than 600,000 acres of timberland in Oregon, North Carolina and Virginia, as well as an export wood chip terminal facility in Coos Bay.