This is old news (go back and read the press release on this)..we have a lot more available this year ...all three kinds of Okanagan's...Douglas Fir, Yellow Pine and SPF...
Old news? It was just announced in October as a two year deal and it hasn't been a year yet. Vancouver, BC - October 1, 2014 - Viridis Energy Inc. ("Viridis" or the "Company") (TSXV: VRD (OTC: VRDSF)), announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, Viridis Merchants Canada Ltd, an aggregation and trading service of wood pellets, has secured an additional 45,000 tonnes of wood pellets per year over the next two years from a western Canadian manufacturer to augment the Company's current production capacity. The additional wood pellets are expected to be available in October 2014 and will be sold to Viridis' existing customers in the U.S.
Yup...that is what we stated in the press release...nothing has really changed in that time till now....much to the relief of several of our customers....
I was a customer last year and certainly am concerned where all this extra tonnage is coming from. That press release indicates a different mill. How do you guarantee consistent quality from mill to mill? Will Upton get pellets exclusively from the original mill? Or is there a chance of product coming from the new addition?
Same fibre source....and why would you be concerned....there is now more available...thus being able to keep dealers better stocked...thus keeping prices at least level and not rising for the time being....this is a good thing ....really....no need to be concerned.
There is alway reason to be concerned when a mill is added to production. In every case I am aware of there seems to be a bit of learning curve where quality suffers. As noted on this and other forums.
I agree. A mill somewhat close to me, run by a VERY large pellet producer, that came on line a few years ago had the WORST pellets I'd used in a long time. Doug, since the company makes wood pellets, and ONLY wood pellets in other plants, wouldn't you think they would have the expertise to have a good product "right from the get-go"? This is the reason that the great majority of us are "gun-shy" at new plant product, regardless of fibre source.
Maybe unlike other companies....if we put our name on it...it is going to be good...and none of the other mills we do business with are rookies....the DFir company has been in business for a very long time....which maybe explains why the pellet they produce is considered by many to be the very best pellet available in all of North America...and they have the test results to back that up...our GA partner tests their product in-house every 15 minutes...24 hour a day....the fibre basket we draw our feed stock from is considered some of the best wood in the world...thus the good results...we want the market place to understand that Okanagan means quality...and we take that very seriously.... We are very lucky that all our producers has access to some very good fibre on a constant basis...that makes a huge difference
Very true! Although quality may not have suffered with these apparently new equipment (dryer) made the pellets look very different from what everyone was used to.
Color has nothing to do with how a pellet burns...you can't tell how well a pellet will burn simply by looking at it....what you are looking at in the above picture is some Fir that got mixed in with SPF and some start up of a new dryer and that is what it looked like...but the burn was pretty damm good from the feedback we got....so I guess I am missing your point.....who cares what color their pellets are.....the only people that put any real importance on that are usually the horse crowd...who want a blonde pellet...they believe it makes their stalls look better.....and who is to say they are wrong.... You are buying energy in a bag...nothing more, nothing less.....the more energy, the cleaner the burn....
I will start by saying I am not a pellet burner, I burn wood.... In a corporate environment I did purchase consumables in bulk quantities. If anything changes my suppliers better have told me in advance. Color is off I need to know why and what else may be affected. The way our contracts are worded, hearing about a change in functionality from the field before the vendor gives me a heads up was grounds... Usually what happened was they gave us the warning, tell us what will change in functionality, tell us what we will need to adjust to compensate, and tell us what they will do to make the contract whole again. All this happens before the product hits our loading dock. I assume Viridis has a similar procedure in place. Douglas Middleton, I hope what you are saying is that you have worked with the new mills, tested the product, and the product you are putting your label on is the same or better that the product from your past sources. Everybody else, the press release is a year old and the product has been on the shelf for a while. In that time has anybody had any problems with Viridis' product? Did those off-color pellets, or any other product with Doug's labels, not burn to expectations? too much ash? low BTUs? If there have not been any problems then this thread is about a non-issue. If there is a problem I hope you will give Doug a heads-up before posting it here. He may have a simple explanation (we thought we caught all of that bad batch, re-bagged them, and sold them at discount or donated them to charity). Give him a chance to make it right. If there is a problem and we politely ask him about it I'm sure he will give us a fair & honest explanation. KaptJaq
So Fir got mixed in and the dryer couldn't get figured out. Any other inconsistencies that do not happen to you yet happen to you?
The Fir will get mixed in all the time if there is not enough to do a separate run of it and the dryer got figured out pretty quick. As I have stated earlier the dryer issue was just a case of a darker pellet, due to a quicker dry, but had nothing to do with the quality of the end product. Kapt Jaq.....we have distributed several thousand tons of these pellets since we started using them and to my knowledge we haven't had any complaints that I am aware of with regard to the quality of the pellet and don't expect to have any either....the biggest issue we have had over the last 2-3 seasons has been the ability to meet the demand in the market place, thus the decision to up our supply....Last winter we were able to supply our dealers many times when others couldn't ...thus making us the only supplier some had thru one of the worst winters in sometime in the North East...At that point, I think there were a bunch of pellet users that were just happy to be able to get something to burn...and weren't to worried about if they were a tad darker than what they may had gotten in the past....Ihatepropane, we have had our differing opinions in the past, but you are IMHO trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill...this is a none issue and I think there are thousands of pellet burners who have used this pellet very successfully that would agree with me.
My only point is that there likely are issues when trying to increase volumes like you are trying to do and buyers should be aware. You say they won't happen to you and that your supply of fiber is so good. And at the same time you had issues with a new dryer and had to substitute fiber a higher quality fiber. This would only happen if you were not experiencing some sort of supply issue. Now quality may not have suffered in those instances, but there have been many complaints about the consistency and quality of your pellets. The Golds in particular, so don't act like they don't exist. Come here and answer honestly is all I(we) are looking for. PS: enough with the we came through and supplied our dealers when others couldn't. There was never a time last year when I couldn't walk in to a place and buy Pellets. Zero issues. Any shortage was due to pizz poor planning on the dealer or customers part.
I remember the cat pee smell being an issue when they first started. Then several complaints for dusty pellets and lots of fines in the bags due to shipping in the rail/box cars...... Before the golds they had issues with the mill and the Platinums/Dark horse were bags full of saw dust........... Yep, Sir Doug has had his fair share of hiccups. Biggest was the mill upgrade just before the seasons rush that took way too long and many got nadda for fuel until late in the season! Each of these came with several blah-blah-blah's for excuses. Always made up something to cover his back side. Whats next??? Can't say, But I bet the excuse is a duezie!!
