The businesses which are now part of New South
Companies, Inc. have their roots in the 1930's and 1940's as the Wall, Sledge,
Singleton, and Campbell families became engaged in the lumber industry and
joined together to build the Red Hill Chip sawmill near Conway in 1957. Joe
Singleton, who began managing a sawmill and building material store in Conway in
1946, became the President of the Company until his death in 1985. In 1983 a new
modern sawmill was built in Camden, SC in partnership with Stora of Sweden,
merging a few years later to become a wholly owned operation. A molding and
finger-jointed stud facility was constructed in Marion, SC in 1992. In 1999, the
company acquired a third sawmill facility in Graham, NC.
The structure of the business was reorganized on June 1, 2001 to more
effectively manage the different businesses as stand-alone entities and
benchmark their performance against the best of their respective industries. New
South Companies, Inc. was created as a holding company operating four separate
companies :
New South Lumber Company, Inc. which operates three sawmills producing 400+
million board feet of lumber annually, as well as a finger-joint stud plant
New South Wood Preserving, LLC operating two lumber treating plants
New South Express, Inc. a trucking common carrier company operating over 50
trucks
New South International, Inc. an international company trading in lumber and
wood products.