Koncor Forest Products: timber for the 21st century.

• Author: Wooding, Jeannie
• Position: Koncor Forest Products Co., Anchorage, Alaska - The New 49ers

Skillful marketing strategies and an eagle eye on the environment make this Native village corporation-owned company a leader in Alaska's timber development.

Profits for rural residents in all corners of Alaska. Diversification of the state's economy. Harvesting precious forest resources without damaging the environment. You catch word of companies that provide at least one of these prized features, but how often can you find a company that provides all three?

Take a look at Koncor Forest Products Co. Formed by four Native corporations, the Anchorage-based company owns or controls in excess of 2 billion feet of Alaska timber. Marketing that wood to clients worldwide earns the company millions of dollars a year: gross revenues of almost $51 million for fiscal year 1992 and anticipated revenues of nearly $80 million for 1993. That's all with a staff of 16 people.

"We put a lot of effort in doing this right," says John Sturgeon, Koncor's president. "We just think it's good business."

According to Sturgeon, the company's success comes from elements like cooperation, broad-based marketing expertise and focused attention to the environment. Each of these elements is tightly woven into Koncor's structure -- a structure that began in 1977.

Cooperative Startup

North of Kodiak Island lies Afognak Island, for generations a land of riches for its Native peoples. Here run sparkling streams full of fat, healthy fish. Here stand thick forests, teeming with bear, elk and deer. On this island, Koncor Forest Products Co. got its start.

Back in the 1970s, under terms of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, many Native corporations received title to land on Afognak.

"Once we got title to the land and saw the lack of opportunity for younger people," says Andy Anderson, president of Ouzinkie Native Corp., "we saw the need to diversify so we could provide employment and bring profits."

Diversifying the fishing-based economy into areas like forest management meant bringing together the Native corporations that owned Afognak's forests.

"If we landowners could form together as one corporation, we could cut down competition between us and increase volume by being one company," says Anderson. "Chances are we would also get a better price (for timber products)."

In 1977, two corporations, Ouzinkie Native Corp. and Natives of Kodiak, formed Koncor Forest Products Co.

Adding to the spirit of cooperation, two other Native corporations, Yak-Tat Kwaan out of Yakutat...