Our Story
60 years of experience and counting. We are North America's largest supplier of processed flax and hemp straw.
Our Roots are Deep
For over 35 years, from our fiber operations facility in Carman, Manitoba – and from our plant in Minnesota before that – we have processed Flax straw into flax fiber for SWM INTL, our parent company’s pulp mill in Spotswood, NJ which they in turn, process into specialty paper.
With the rise in demand for natural, environmentally sustainable practices and products, we started looking for other markets for our flax fiber and its related by-product – flax shive.
Flax shive, the waste part of flax straw that is removed in making fiber, was the first product that we started marketing aggressively. Rather than continue to truck most of this by-product to a landfill, we sold shive to local businesses for use as animal bedding, as a biofuel, and for soil erosion control.
We quickly realized that both shive and fiber would have many more uses if the fiber and shive were more extensively refined. We have worked to a great extent with industry researchers to find applications that can displace man-made inputs and have found that flax fibers are a good substitute for fiberglass and other petroleum-based materials in composite building materials, textiles and plastics.
A Long History of Flax Expertise in North America
We first started producing paper from European flax fiber at our Jersey City (New Jersey) mill in 1921. With the onset of World War II, the supply of European flax was cut off. Thus began the development of an American based supply of flax
To supply the increasing demand, a plant was purchased at Windom, MN in 1945 and by 1949 the company was totally self-sufficient with domestic flax.
The Hammer mill was developed replacing the 600 ft long breaker roll production line. A fixed based mill with hammer mill began operation in 1953 followed by a trailer mounted mill in 1956. This allowed relocation of the mill to the various locations where quality straw grew minimizing straw transportation costs. However, it wasn’t until 1970 that a single trailer mounted “Mini Mill” was developed allowing processing at individual farm fields (processing began in Canada in 1974).
Another major innovation in flax processing came in 1983 with the design and construction of a tub grinder allowing processing of large round bales. In 1984 we purchased our Winkler, MB facility and by 1985 all straw purchasing and processing was done in Canada. Production speed was greatly enhanced with the design and construction of a round bale guillotine in 1989 and by 1991 the portable mill (PB) was processing only round bales.
The completion of the tow screener project in 2000 drastically reduced shive and fines in tow, increasing cellulose content. Another major milestone occurred in 2001 as we converted the PB mill to hydroelectric power eliminating diesel generators. 2001 also saw Phase I covering of straw stacks to protect the bales from excess moisture and by 2002 all stacks were covered.
2002 marks the year we built the Permanent Decorticating Facility (PDF) just outside of Carman, Manitoba. Improvements have continuously been made as technology has drastically improved and research and design has uncovered new ways of streamlining operations.
As invigorating as the past has been, the future holds even more exciting possibilities.
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