Why One of the Top Five Landowners in North America Uses Forest2Market

As soon as Forest Capital Partners acquired land in northern Louisiana and eastern Texas, the company's first acquisition in the Southeast, it began using Forest2Market (F2M) services to better understand its customers and the market value for timber in that area.

Forest Capital, an independent investment firm that acquires and manages large-scale, investment-grade forests totaling more than 2.1 million acres across North America, quickly identified the need for more precise and timely market data to support its investment and marketing decisions. The Forest2Market online timber pricing and benchmarking data gave the timber operator the tools it needed to be successful in a new and unfamiliar marketplace.

"We were trying to find the right-size tree that would bring the most value to the market," said Matt Donegan, co-president of Forest Capital. "Forest2Market's pricing data showed us exactly what size trees we needed to produce, enabling us to make significant, value-enhancing adjustments to our harvest schedules."

Forest Capital acquired additional holdings in Louisiana in 2005, and Forest2Market services supported Forest Capital's due diligence efforts and helped them structure a streamlined wood-supply agreement. Doing so now enables Forest Capital and its key customer to circumvent time and cost-intensive price negotiations typical of other regions lacking Forest2Market services. By using Forest2Market, both buyers and sellers are able to use the F2M neutral, third-party data to agree on a price.

"Not having to go through a laborious, quarterly negotiation process is one of the best benefits of using F2M. It really helps us focus on better serving our mill customers," said Donegan.

Donegan says using Forest2Market data is a regular part of his team's operations. As one of the top-five landowners in North America, Forest Capital manages a substantial number of sales every week. In the South, they use Forest2Market to ensure they are getting a fair price for their timber every time.

"Forest2Market has really helped us better understand the market and the value of our own products," Donegan said. "Equipped with Forest2Market's data, as markets move and our customers' needs change, we can be nimble and adjust production accordingly. Having that advantage has been a key component in our success.