Birchwood Manufacturing Company, located in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, was founded in 1947. The Besse family acquired it in 1996.

The original Birchwood Manufacturing complex with 100,000 square feet of manufacturing space and capacity to produce 75,000,000 square feet of veneer annually was totally destroyed in a September 1999 fire.

Birchwood Manufacturing Company has rebuilt the plant on its original site. The new $25,000,000 state-of-the-art production facility consists of three rotary cutting lines. Two lines are dedicated to producing thin stock panel rotary veneers and the third produces thick rotary veneer. The new plant also features two inline Babcock Press Dryers, splicing lines and a veneer dying operation.

Birchwood Manufacturing Company acquired a complete lumber core operation in 2006. The operation complements the Company's veneer face and plywood departments and provides full service to the door and stock panel industries by producing high quality lumber core and door core to a variety of specifications.

The Rice Lake facility is the most modern rotary hardwood mill in North America.