SHAVINGS-DIRECT™ is a new company built on an experienced business model. Although our actual SHAVINGS-DIRECT™ history only started in 2007 the shavings business has been evolving for the last 45 years and that has led us to where we are today.

In 1963, the first bag of wood shavings was manufactured in Canada and trucked to the US markets. This started the long beginning of an industry that evolved in many ways.

Wood shavings were originally baled on sight at Canadian sawmills as a way to get rid of a by-product. Trucker’s began taking the  product and marketing it in the US to farms. Up until this point wood shavings or sawdust for use as animal bedding was delivered and used in bulk. The baling of wood shavings was something new, peat moss balers were used to bale the by-product in to paper bags. The traditional paper bale shavings were born.

As the industry became more modern, technology was improved. Higher compression was put in the bags and plastic bags were used to improve packaging. Attention was paid to the quality of the wood shavings, efforts were made to get as dust free shavings as possible and companies began grading their shavings. The more modern, graded and branded shavings began to become popular.

In the late 90's due to many reasons costs began to skyrocket. Everything from raw materials, transportation and Canadian currency exchange rates began to push prices higher and higher each year. A competition for raw material also began as mills had introduced more efficient machinery that created less by product. The age of cheap shavings was over and it steadily moved towards a seller’s market.

The shortage of raw material and quest for higher quality brought about pioneers again. In the US a company began taking pine trees and flaking them in to manufactured shavings designed for premium quality. Newer technology was used to produce higher quality packaging and a value added product was introduced to the market.  

As the first 5 years of 2000 came on, the price of Canadian wood shavings steadily increased by over 100%, the customers were very unhappy and supply and demand issues in the market were causing major problems.

In 2006 an opportunity was envisioned by Nick Fitzpatrick to create a division of the company dedicated strictly to the distribution of wood shavings to customers.

Gathering supplier contacts in the industry from Canada and the US, Nick began the legwork of creating a supplier network to service customers in all areas with the right products efficiently.

In late 2007, SHAVINGS-DIRECT™ was launched as a business purchasing in volume from suppliers that produce quality wood shavings products and selling them to customers at the best price. Significant investment in technology, systems and transportation was made to make every effort to lower prices to the customer.

SHAVINGS-DIRECT™ although only in the beginning stages in our eyes, will steadily improve the system of delivering wood shavings to customers all over the world. By capitalizing on volume we will provide customers with the best source at their disposal to not only make the purchasing process easy, but to save them money.