Making Sure One-Off Purchases Are Beneficial Long-Term

 “If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is.”  Business is challenging for many companies right now. Producers are battling for orders, and the intense competition creates pricing pressures we have not seen in years. 

The litmus test buyers need to take when making their lumber purchasing decisions is whether the purchase is transactional or strategic.  A transactional buyer may make a great buy, given the current market.  A strategic buyer might look beyond the transactional buyer and ask, “How does this benefit me for both the short and long term?”  “Does it hurt me to buy from Company “B” when in the past Company “A” has met my needs with competitive pricing, on-time deliveries, and has been there when I needed them?”  A strategic buyer might ask, “Does this purchase secure my supply chain for the future, or is it hurting the vendor or vendors I normally count on?” 

Right now, hardwood lumber companies are offering deals on lumber loads, reflecting the challenging markets we are experiencing.  Without question, there are good deals to be had.  At Cascade, we always want to keep our customers competitive, and we do appreciate opportunities to maintain the market share we have worked hard to develop.  The key takeaway is that Cascade has been here for over 50 years; we are financially stable and a key supplying partner to distributors and manufacturers worldwide.  This means that Cascade assures lumber buyers of security in their supply chain for years to come by having two large, modern Alder sawmills, each with excess kiln capacity ensuring continuous operation.  Supply Chain Risk Assessment has become an exercise many of our customers are starting to look at doing, and some of the larger ones have been querying us on supply chain risk for years.  All are pleased to know we have plenty of logs and are running our regular 50-hour/week schedules at both mills. 

So, if you get that really good Alder offer, keep in mind our ongoing commitment to keeping you competitive in the marketplace. Call us before making a one-off purchase. We might be able to help.

“Supply chains cannot tolerate even 24 hours of disruption. So if you lose your place in the supply chain because of wild behavior you could lose a lot. It would be like pouring cement down one of your oil wells.”

Thomas Friedman – Pulitzer prize-winning opinion columnist focusing on global trade