Every year almost three million wooden pallets leave Cobourg with a destiny that includes world travel.

And with its recent investment of in a massive lumber saw, Canada Pallet expects to secure its share of the market for years to come, says president Tom Haar.

This company investment, combined with a new product, a line of wooden box springs whose patents are pending, is good news for the community, its manufacturing sector and the more than 100 employees who work at Canada Pallet

Earlier this week Mr. Haar and sales manager and company shareholder, Shawn Hicks, took town councillors and municipal staff, plus members of the media, on a tour of the 150,000-square-foot facility on Division Street.

The town's economic development department facilitated the sale of the former automotive parts plant to Mr.

Haar in the late 1990s. He was operating his six-year-old business in Campbellford at the time.when he and former landlord had a dispute in 1998, Mr. Haar explained. Mr. Haar saw the Cobourg facility and his operation was relocated, up and running by early 1999. There is one other Canadian facility, a small plant in Marmora, plus five in the United States, he said while showcasing the giant sawing machine which cost about $2-million to acquire and install with the expertise supplied by Tronco Machineries of Quebec.

Together with material-handling machinery throughout the plant, the saw processes, cuts to length, slices in half and notches the various one and two-by-fours used in hundreds of styles of pallets. "Before it was all done manually. Now it's a fairly high skilled job," Mr. Haar says.

A nailing machine completes the job, before the pallets are piled and shipped out on - you guessed it - a pallet, according to a company media release.

The pallets are used by a wide range of manufacturers and industries including mining companies where each one is rated to carry 4,000 pounds and can be piled four high, explains Mr. Hicks.

Most of the raw wood arrives on rail cars from Northern Ontario and Quebec and there are 1.5- to 2-million board feet stacked in the yard awaiting processing. Some of it is rough and a combination of machinery and employee skill weed out the parts that are unacceptable.

"But nothing goes to the garbage," Mr. Haar explains. These parts are ground up, and this material, plus sawdust, are used in the manufacturing of shingles and particle board at other businesses.

In the farthest corner of the plant from the gigantic saw, the box spring manufacturing business is in full swing. Most of these, including a collapsible variety which drastically reduces shipping costs for clients, are sold to mattress companies. Just recently the product was formally launched in the U.S. Mr. Haar says. In Canada they are sold through "Jysk".

The closest outlet is in Kingston, but local retailer "Heavenly Dreams" carries the finished product, Mr. Hicks says.

Increased technology coupled with a flexible, dedicated workforce are keys to moving the business forward, Mr. Haar says. Clients can expect quality and competitive prices.