Luggate Sawmill directors Gerard Haggart and Skip Johnston have trimmed operations at the former Central Otago Lumber site, but are determined to keep a supply of timber available for the district's landscaping and construction industries.
"We think it's a positive move. Once you lose something like this from an area then it is hard to get back," Mr Johnston said.
Twelve people lost their jobs when the owners of the Luggate sawmill, the Skeggs family of Dunedin, closed the previous business in May.
Mr Haggart and Mr Johnston's scaled-back business will employ six people, and will also allow the leased mill site and plant to remain operational.
The pair acknowledge taking on a timber plant and sawmill operation in a recession could be seen as a gamble.
"We think it's calculated. If you can make the business and mill work in the tough times, then you can certainly run it in the good times," Mr Haggart said.
Timber mills around Otago have downsized as the effects of the economic recession bit earlier this year.
Mr Haggart had managed the Luggate sawmill for the past 11 years and had also operated sawmills at Ranfurly, Tapanui and Pukerau during a 35-year career in the industry.
The timber industry always experienced a seasonal rise as spring arrived, summer took hold, and the landscaping and construction industries got busier, but those signs did not necessarily mean the economic downturn was over, he said.
Mr Johnston formerly had a logging operation based at Haast, and farmed in Southland.
He also runs a firewood supply company in Wanaka and has a contracting business.
There was still a demand for "local" timber in the area and the start-up business would supply to meet market demand, reducing cartage costs for buyers, he said.
Yesterday, the new-look Luggate sawmill and fledgling company had completed "half a dozen" orders on the first day of the new business' operation.
