Suwannee Lumber Bark is starting to collect pine bark inventory at their new site in Suwannee County.

Suwannee Lumber Company LLC has set up shop on 20 acres in Northwestern Suwannee County with a new pine mulch operation, Suwannee Lumber Bark. The company comes with a $2 million capital investment and an initial two to four new jobs with average annual salaries of $45,000, according to Suwannee Lumber Vice President Brian Faircloth.

“Suwannee Lumber Company has always been a growth oriented company,” said Faircloth. “We will be bringing jobs and growth to Suwannee County for many years to follow.”

Suwannee Lumber is the “Project Cross City” that Suwannee County commissioners were presented with last December. While the company ultimately did not locate on county-owned land in the Suwannee County Regional Industrial Complex, it is adjacent to the complex’s Klausner Lumber One sawmill. This location provides ideal access to raw material from Klausner.

Suwannee Lumber Bark will use Klausner’s screened bark byproduct to make bark fines, mini nugget and large nugget pine mulch. They have already begun collecting inventory and installing equipment at their new 14,000-square-foot site, but operations are currently limited until an office and scales are complete, Faircloth said.

Founded in 1954, Suwannee Lumber maintains headquarters in Cross City, Fla. with an additional operation in Statham, Ga. Over the past 20 years the company has grown by over $95 million in revenue and has become one of the Southeast’s leading independent manufacturers of softwood lumber and ground cover. Suwannee Lumber also runs a retail hardware store and a firewood operation.

Suwannee Lumber Bark joins Klausner and wood pellet company Cornerstone Biomass in locating inside or around the Suwannee County Regional Industrial Complex. MATCO Reload, a railroad logistics company, is also slated to begin operations in the area to provide transport between businesses in the area and the nearby railroad.