Norbord is celebrating a quarter of a century of UK Oriented Strand Board production with the 25th anniversary of its Inverness factory this summer.

During the 1970’s and early 1980’s, the UK experienced the closure of several paper mills and near collapse of its forest products industry. It was following this time that the Inverness factory, which now employs 125 people, was established.

A consortium of investors, including local businesses, landowners, institutions and a US financier, John Godfrey, came together in November 1983 to form Highland Forest Products.

With their £12.5 million capital investment and on land supplied by the Highlands and Islands Development Agency, the consortium built the Inverness factory which, in June 1985, became Europe’s first OSB manufacturer.

The factory’s product – called “Sterling” oriented strand board in recognition of its British origins – has since become the UK’s leading brand and is still the only OSB produced in the UK. Today, the term “sterling board” is now widely used by British merchants and builders.

Three years after the Inverness factory began production, Canadian forest products pioneer, Noranda Forest Inc., acquired the entire Highland Forest Products shareholding and, in 1991, the company changed its name to Norbord Highland.

After a couple of changes, the name reverted once and for all to Norbord Europe in 2004.

Today, Norbord’s Inverness factory continues to produce high quality OSB not only for the UK market but also for customers throughout Europe and is now joined by a sister factory producing Sterling OSB in Genk, Belgium.