Mainebiz Special Editions

V O L . X X I X N O. V § 2 M A R C H 6 , 2 0 2 3 22 S TA R T U P S A fter several years of plan- ning and preparation, a defunct paper mill in Mad- ison has come roaring back to life with a new product: high-perfor- mance wood fiber insulation for homes and other buildings. TimberHP, the mill's new owner, expected to roll out the first of three planned product lines (loose fill, batt and board) in April, with the other two products launching before the end of the year. While wood fiber insulation is popular in Europe, TimberHP will be the first company to produce it in the United States. "It's a different type of insulation than anyone has seen in America," said company co-founder and CEO Joshua Henry, adding that retailers and dis- tributors have expressed strong inter- est. "ey're quite eager to get their hands on that product." TimberHP is the brainchild of Henry, a trained chemist, and business partner Matthew O'Malia, an architect. Conceived in 2015, the company had 36 employees as of February, with plans to grow its staff to 60 by the end of 2023 and 140 within the next three years. e project gained momentum in 2017 when Henry and O'Malia were able to source the needed production equipment at a steep discount from German company Homanit Build- ing Materials. With a deal set for the equipment, they bought the mill prop- erty in Madison, about 60 miles west of Bangor, for $1.4 million in 2019. But the startup hit a snag in 2020 when travel to Europe was suspended by the pandemic, cutting off access to a key potential investor. With lim- ited time to capitalize on available tax credits, Henry and O'Malia piv- oted to working with the Finance Authority of Maine, or FAME, on a public-private funding package that included $85 million in tax-exempt conduit bond financing. Other state, regional and local entities jumped on board, as did pri- vate investors. In all, TimberHP has managed to secure more than $125 million in loans, grants and private equity investment. About 60 percent of the company's private investors are in Maine, Henry said. Participating groups on the public side include the Maine Rural Devel- opment Authority, town of Madison, state Department of Economic and Community Development, Somer- set Economic Development Corp., Coastal Enterprises Inc., Eastern Maine Development Corp. and Maine Technology Institute. Maine economic development offi- cials see multiple benefits to backing TimberHP, said Carlos Mello, FAME's CEO. Not only is the venture bring- ing back lost jobs to an economically depressed community, but it also has created a new use for timber indus- try byproducts that might otherwise be disposed of as waste. "From an economic develop- ment perspective, this checks off all the boxes," Mello said. "It increases employment, and [they're] good quality jobs. It creates a product that is green and helps with carbon-neutrality, and it helps regenerate and create a use for product that has been impacted due to the decline of pulp and paper manu- facturing in the state." TimberHP's venture After $125 million retrofit, Madison mill will produce high-performance insulation B y J . C r a i g A n d e r s o n R E N D E R I N G / C O U R T E S Y O F T I M B E R H P P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F FA M E TimberHP is retrofitting the Madison mill and expects to roll out the first of three product lines in April. Carlos Mello, CEO of FAME, sees multiple benefits to backing TimberHP. State and local officials teamed up with private investors to fund a $125 million venture known as TimberHP, which is set to launch the first U.S.-made wood fiber insulation product in April. F O C U S

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