Hampton Investment Company history

1950 The company creates Hampton Lumber Sales.

In 1955, Bud's other son, Charles, took charge of the company's newly founded Canadian subsidiary, Hampton Lumber Mills, Ltd. in Boston Barr, British Columbia.

That same year, Willamina Lumber sold its modern plywood mill, completed in 1959, in Redcrest, California, to Pacific Lumber Co. as part of a move to get out of the plywood business and focus on lumber mill operations.

John Hampton assumed responsibility for plant development and timber acquisition at Willamina Lumber in 1960.

1966 John Hampton succeeds L. M. Hampton as president of Willamina Lumber Co.

In 1979, the company built a new facility, a $9 million wood products expansion at Willamina, which employed 145 workers.

When the workers at Willamina Lumber struck during a contract fight in 1983, the company hired non-union replacements.

However, despite the fact that more than 30 percent of the workforce petitioned for a decertification election and many strikers crossed the picket line, the International Woodworkers of America (IWA) won the right in 1984 to remain the bargaining representative for the workers at Willamina.

By 1985, its overall lumber production was 308 million board feet.

1988 The company acquires the Fort Hill Lumber Company.

Hampton Affiliates closed two of its mills in the Willamina area temporarily, trimming its number of employees by 150 in 1989.

In 1990, it slashed production at its Fort Hill Lumber Company, blaming high log prices and laying off an additional 20 of the remaining 60 Fort Hill workers.

In the midst of this period and at the height of the 1991 industry slowdown, Hampton forged an agreement with Portland-based environmentalists, agreeing to sell close to 29 acres of old-growth trees in Northwest Portland to a nonprofit called Friends of Forest Park for $600,000.

1993 The company acquires 11,000 acres of timberland in southwest Washington.

1995 Ron Parker becomes president and CEO of the company.

1996 The Ryderwood acquisition adds 94,000 acres of timberland in Southwest Washington.

1997 The company purchases California Builders Supply.

Despite a thriving domestic economy and record housing sales in 1998, the Asian crisis caused lumber prices to plunge; exports of logs and finished lumber to Japan dropped off while Canadian lumber poured into the United States, pushing lumber prices down further.

The year 1999 was another one of growth for Hampton, which then employed about 750 workers and produced 575 million board feet of dimensional lumber each year.

By 2000, the company ranked as the sixth largest lumber company in the nation and acquired Lane Stanton Vance, a hardwoods distribution business.

Japan continued to figure prominently in lumber industry fortunes through 2002.

Moving forward on other fronts as well, the company purchased a Darrington, Washington mill from Summit Timber, which it renovated for a spring 2003 reopening.

2004 The company purchases Wilson River Tree Farm; closes Fort Hill sawmill.

Rivera, Dylan, "Lumbering to Gain Ground," Oregonian, January 9, 2005.

Hamptons Group was founded in 2011 with a vision to create a unique niche in the commercial space of financial, intellectual, and relational capital through alternative investments and strategic advisory.