Forestry sector heralds Bragg family bid for Northern Pulp land
CBC
Members of Nova Scotia’s forest industry and a prominent environmentalist are welcoming news that the winning bidder for the Northern Pulp timberlands is a local company whose owner they say has a track record of doing right by rural communities.
The Bragg family announced on Thursday that it was the successful bidder, through its Tidnish Holdings Ltd., for the 173,000 hectares of forest and other assets at a price of $235 million. Billionaire blueberry mogul John Bragg, whose interests also include Oxford Frozen Foods and Eastlink, is founder and CEO of the Bragg Group.
The deal is subject to court approval next week.
“I don’t want to sound too excited but in our mind that was as good an outcome as we could have hoped for,” Marcus Zwicker, chief operating officer at Harry Freeman and Son Ltd., said in an interview.
“I don’t think that we could have found a better buyer than the Bragg family.”
The family is no stranger to forestry, with years of experience, and is already a major landholder through its company Bragg Lumber. It’s likely that when the deal for the Northern Pulp land closes, the Braggs will become the largest landholder in Nova Scotia after the provincial government.
Todd Burgess, the executive director of Forest Nova Scotia, said the Braggs have a proven track record when it comes to forestry.
“They’re very diligent and they’re very active,” he said Friday.
“So when they harvest, they replant, they reforest, they tend their forest and they look after special places, as well. So they’re a good corporate citizen.”
Burgess and Zwicker both said that having the land controlled by a local company provides more certainty for the future than if it were an out-of-province or foreign interest who might not have as much or any consideration for the wellbeing of the province.
Zwicker said previous work experience he’s had that involved interactions with Bragg Lumber showed him that the family takes a long-term view when it comes to how they manage their land.
“It’s very sustainable and it’s always looking for how is the forest going to be healthier and better managed in the future.”
The price of the deal caught a lot of people’s attention, said Zwicker.
Land usually sells for about $800 an acre on transitions of 1,000 acres or less, he said. By that metric, Bragg got a deal by paying about $550 an acre.
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