Kelly Summers, Megan Hundt, Cathy Summers, and Jerry Summers are the family force behind the nearly 40-year-old forestry business. growing medium is consistent.” Some of Killaloe’s mixes require com -posting for up to two years on site. Oth-er product can be processed and sent out within six months. The six-month mini-mum allows organic breakdown to occur so that the mulch doesn’t pull nitrogen out of the soil. A specific product designed to supress growth can be processed and shipped green. Trucking for deliveries is a huge seg -ment of their logistics. The company owns two trucks to run their four 53-foot walk -ing floor trailers. Two other trucks are subcontracted to pull the trailers March to October. Around 80 per cent of their prod-uct is delivered to customers, landscape depots and growers in Ontario and Que-bec. The remaining 20 per cent is sold to customers on site. Killaloe’s busy season runs from April to June. In the lead up, staff are in “set up” mode, getting the product on site and pre-paring logistics for the spring rush. “I kind of think of our business like that gameshow where you’re running through a grocery store and you have three min-utes to get everything into the cart,” Hundt says. “Our busy season is like that where you’re scrambling. The rest of the year is getting everything set up so you can do that rundown efficiently.” FAMILY FOCUS When asked what drew them as young professionals to the family forestry busi-ness, Summers and Hundt don’t hesitate with a handful of reasons. “It could be just looking up to my dad,” Summers says. “He’s been a chameleon of the industry. It’s been ever changing for him. From my point of view, he’s seemed to adapt well. I’m sure there were lots of processes that stressed him out then, but it worked very well for him. It’s good to see how well he enjoyed doing it. And to be a “Everyone here has a sense of responsibility for making things run smoothly, so we trade hats often. ” – Megan Hundt 14 Canadian BIOMASS part of working with the family, working with my sister, my mom and my dad has been important. We’re a really close family.” For Hundt, who started with the com-pany shortly after she graduated from the University of Waterloo in biochemistry and business, choosing the family busi-ness was the right lifestyle for her. “I thought I was destined for pharma-ceutical marketing,” she says. “I realized you kind of need to live in Mississauga. I kept running up against: ‘I don’t want to live here.’ For me, joining was really the idea of living in this area that I love. No day is ever the same and we get to be outside. I have a pretty office-y job, but I spend less than half a day behind a desk. “We work with great people, our cus -tomers, our partners, everyone is often small owner/operators. I really enjoy work -ing with people who like to get their hands dirty. It’s a very different culture from the corporate culture that I thought I wanted,” Hundt says. And when it comes down to it, mulch is neat. “People must dread me at parties – ‘I sell mulch and let me tell you about it’ – but when you get down to the nitty gritty of it, it is so interesting!” Hundt says. • WINTER 2024
Canadian Biomass Winter 2024: Page 14
