NewWood hiring 150 at new facility

NewWood Inc. CEO John Bowser says he was expecting about 200 job seekers to attend the open house at his company’s new manufacturing facility in Elma, Wash., on Monday. Instead, about 800 applicants came looking for work.

NewWood, which manufactures a composite material made of 99 percent recycled wood and plastic, plans to create 150 jobs in Elma. The city is in Grays Harbor county in southwest Washington, an area that has been hit hard by the recession. The county-wide unemployment rate is 11.4 percent, the fifth highest in the state and more than two percentage points above the statewide average, according to data from the Employment Security Department.

Bowser notes that the unemployment rate can be much higher when broader measures are applied. The official unemployment rate, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “includes all jobless persons who are available to take a job and have actively sought work in the past four weeks.” Those who have not sought employment recently, for the simple reason that there were no jobs available for them, are not counted in the official statistics.

“It’s a testament to the plight in our country right now, I believe,” Bowser says.

The 275,000-square-foot facility was formerly owned by wood products manufacturer Boise Cascade. Bowser discovered the decommissioned plant when he came to purchase a specific piece of equipment. Within eight months, he became the buyer of the entire facility.

“It’s a world-class plant sitting in a place that needs jobs,” Bowser says. “I couldn’t understand why they would want to tear apart this plant and sell the equipment.”

It will take about six months to re-commission the plant, and about 18-36 months to reach the full capacity of 150 employees. The company is hiring to fill several positions. A full list is available on their website.