Jon Kleinschmidt signs off from Hyne with Tumbarumba on his mind

In the 28 years, six months and one week Jon Kleinschmidt has worked with Hyne Timber, a career highlight he says he’s unlikely to ever forget was the $180 million investment in the company’s Tumbarumba Mill.

The mill had long figured in his working life.

Hyne Timber had bought the enterprise in 2001 so with Jon managing the redevelopment as well as the company’s Tuan Mill in Queensland, he was an early adopter of the FIFO way of life; having attained his pilot licence he’d fly himself from Maryborough in Queensland to Tumbarumba regularly.

John became a part time local in the process and came to regard the mountain town as his other home, far from his actual home on Queensland’s Fraser Coast.

So a phone call on New Year’s Eve 2019 shook him to his boots.

“You can imagine receiving the phone call on that fateful night from the then-CEO of Forest Corporation NSW saying, ‘Jon, I think we might lose it all’,” he said.

Of course, that CEO, Nick Roberts, was referring to the Forestry Corporation’s plantation estate, being ravaged by uncontrolled bushfires in the Snowy Valleys region during the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires.

Until that call, Jon had been on vacation with his family and a long way from any news coverage.

He immediately departed for Tumbarumba, arriving to an eerie, empty sawmill, met only by the NSW Rural Fire Service and Fire and Rescue crews still tirelessly battling to protect the mill and town.

“That visit to Tumbarumba will stay with me forever albeit not as a negative, but as a positive; an incredible show of community fight, resilience and what humanity can achieve when working together,” Jon said.

“I was asked to speak and provide reassurance at the community hall where residents could collect emergency, donated supplies,” he said. “Residents, including some of our own team members, had lost a great deal including property and livestock and we were there with them, helping where we could.”

Thanks to the bravery, effort and collaboration of many, Jon said, all was not lost.

“But we lost 40 per cent of our plantation log resource for the mill,” he explained, “but we didn’t accept ‘can’t’ as a response to that disaster.”

“In the few years since the fires and during a global pandemic, we managed to find a way to secure feedstock,” he said, “thanks to the ‘let’s have a go’ attitude of our suppliers and heartily supported by the NSW Government who arguably, now more than ever, recognise the importance of our industry.”

Seeing the first trainload in history carrying Walcha sourced logs for the mill arrive in Wagga, then trucked up to Tumbarumba just two weeks ago, gave Jon closure to one of the most testing times of his career.

Today, Jon Kleinschmidt, known fondly throughout the business and industry as ‘JK’, officially retires as chief executive officer of Hyne Timber and XLam.

Jon has held the role of CEO for 11 years, having started in the business in 1994 as mill engineer at the Tuan Softwood Mill near Maryborough in Queensland.

Throughout nearly three decades with the Hyne Group, he’s soared (excuse the pun) from mill engineer to division engineer, operations manager to divisional manager, and general manager, development and technical services, before being asked by the then-chair to take on the role of general manager, finance and administration.

From there, Jon went on to become a joint CEO for about 12 months before being solely appointed to the CEO role.

In his role as general manager development and technical services, he managed both the Tuan Mill and Tumbarumba Mill redevelopments where the company’s processing capacity was increased more than eightfold to meet the increasing demand for softwood timber to build the Australian family dream home.

Throughout his tenure, there was a rapid and exponential growth in the use and application of technology in the business; a key development being the step change from visual grading to automated machine grading of the structural framing products produced at both mills.

Jon said innovation was always top of mind and the word ‘can’t’ didn’t exist in the Hyne vocabulary.

“As a young, inquisitive engineer, I was inspired and encouraged from the onset,” he said.

“’They said you can’t ‘ultra-high temperature’ dry radiata wood. We did. You can’t convert the market to termite treated timber. We did. Years later, we established the first cross-laminated timber plant in Australia, and I am proud of the men and women in our business who continue to drive innovation with creativity and passion,” Jon said.

There have been highs and lows, challenges and wins over the years and an epic win for Jon was being part of the leadership team that successfully steered the Hyne ship through the Global Financial Crisis.

“We had to completely restructure, sell assets, strip the business back. It wasn’t easy but we came out the other side. Last year, we celebrated our 140th year with exciting announcements of growth and expansion with new partners, James Jones and Sons. And with the further expansion announcement this year with Rocky Point,” Jon said.

Jon attributes much of his success to the many mentors, exceptional team members, experiences and, of course, the focus and support from the Hyne family.

“The fact that Hyne is a family business is what attracted me in the first place,” he said. “The late Warren Hyne was the managing director at that time, and he was a legendary industry and business leader.

“I thank the Hyne family for their support, the opportunities they have given me and faith they have instilled in me to steer their 141-year-old business for the last 11 years,” he said. “It has been a privilege.

“For all those wondering, next week I will be fishing off the shores of Hervey Bay, the paradise my family and I call home. Thank you!”