Weyerhaeuser Puts Another Unit Up for Sale

Weyerhaeuser Co. announced Monday that it is selling its Arkansas-based gypsum wallboard business, even though the operation is profitable.

The move is another in a series of sales by Weyerhaeuser to divest itself of what management believes are operations that “fall outside the company’s desired strategic focus.”

Top executives of the timber giant announced at the April 20 shareholders’ meeting that the company’s portfolio would be reviewed and that many operations would be sold.

Weyerhaeuser put two other operations on the auction block last week.

The gypsum mine and wallboard facility at Briar, Ark., is the third-largest such facility in the United States and is profitable, with annual production capacity in excess of 600 million square feet and annual sales of more than $35 million. The plant employs 223 workers.