Boisaco

Boisaco is a partnership owned by two worker cooperatives – the forestry co-op COFOR, and a sawmill co-op UNIASCO – and a solidarity cooperative made of community shareholders. The partnership formed in 1985 in the small town of Sacré-Cœur in the Upper North Coast of the St. Lawrence, after the local mill went through several cycles of investment and bankruptcy, working against Canada / U.S. trade disputes and forest fires. The mortgage-holding bank, wanting to exit, sold the mill to the partnership for pennies on the dollar.

The timing was fortunate as the market rebounded shortly after the sale, and the group has since started several subsidiary businesses selling value added wood products, often as joint ventures with a large company that can bring the product to market. Among them were Sacopan in 1999 in partnership with Masonite to produce door panels; Ripco in 2001 with Royal Wood Shavings to make equestrial bedding,and Granulco in 2009 with the Innue Essipit First Nation converting sawdust to energy. Workers at two other subsidiaries formed their own worker co-op, Valiasco. In 2024 the group included 600 employees, 300 of which were worker-owners, and 800 community investors.