Woodworking Firm Buys Upper Valley Press Building

Oct 20

Bernie Marvin

Jean-Bernard Gagnon, President of Cuisine Ideale, a Canadian company that has purchased the vacant Upper Valley Press building on Route 116 in North Haverhill. The Bridge Weekly/Bernie Marvin

North Haverhill, NH – A prominent Sherbrooke, Canada, woodworking company that designs and manufactures high-end custom kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, and built-in furniture has purchased the former Upper Valley Press building on Route 116.

The firm's president, Jean-Bernard Gagnon, told The Bridge Weekly in an interview that the company intends to rehab the long-vacant building and begin producing its popular products as soon as the large structure is made ready, a municipal tax abatement program is agreed to, and other business arrangements are in place with local, state, and federal governments.

Before its demise in May 2024, Upper Valley Press was a large commercial printer that opened in Bradford in early 1970, then moved across the Connecticut River to North Haverhill in 1997. For decades, it was a major regional print hub, printing and mailing newspapers and commercial paper advertising materials across the North Country.

With the collapse of most weekly and daily newspapers and other printed communication methods in America, Upper Valley Press was caught up in the internet's social media’s ability to carry instant news with community comment (and viral fame) and eventually lost too many printing accounts to survive.

The building was abandoned, and the skeleton management crew moved the operation to Maine, where, as with most things in the world of strong, opinionated newspapers and local publishing, it disappeared.

Cuisine Ideale President Gagnon said his firm purchased the building and that, once it is fully rehabilitated and can once again host a business inside the large flat-roofed building, his investment would total $8.6 million.

Company President Jean-Bernard said the company met with the Haverhill Select Board on Tuesday night, October 13, 2026, at 6 PM at the Robert E. Clifford Memorial Building and held a public hearing on a tax abatement program the Canadian firm hopes the select board will approve.

President Jean-Bernard said, "We believe it is important that residents and the board hear directly from us about what we are planning and just what it will mean to the community." He said the building is the perfect size to accommodate what the company wants to build, but it will need substantial work to bring it up to code so they can use it for their business.

He said the money needed to bring the building online for manufacturing will be substantial for the 68,0000 square foot building. He said he has found former employees who have come aboard and helped them identify additional areas that need constructive work, such as, to name just one, underground tanks that are not compliant with current laws.

He said workers have found many areas that are noncompliant or not operating, and that the program to find and fix everything "has been a big nightmare." He said it is the seventh manufacturing factory the company owns and that his father, Yves Gagnon, the company founder who established the company in Sherbrooke, Canada, comes to North Haverhill regularly to oversee the work underway at the business.

His sons, Jean-Bernard Gagnon and Pierre-Yves Gagnon, are the company's co-presidents. They lead the business.

During the sparsely attended hearing, according to both the Haverhill Select Board member and project spokesman Ron Hurlburt and Company President Gagnon, the Canadian firm presented its main plan and financials, job growth, and other details to the board at the October 13, 2026, meeting.

Benoit Lamontagne from the New Hampshire Bureau of Economic Affairs attended the meeting. The project could potentially open the door to additional state and federal programs that would benefit the town alongside the company's investment.

Gagnon said he submitted a document outlining some of those partnership opportunities, including the Economic Revitalization Zone, Northern Bureau Regional Commission Catalyst Program, and Community Development Block Grant possibilities that could be written, all for the benefit of the project and the town.

In a post-meeting interview with The Bridge Weekly, Select Board member Hurlburt said the meeting revealed that the company is seeking a 10-year tax-free period while it gets the business up and running.

Hurlburt noted that taxes expected into the town from the vacant building have decreased. The original valuation of $2.7 million was lowered to $1.3 million; then last summer it was lowered to $983,000, which brought taxes down from $55,000 a year to $22,000 a year.

Hurlburt said the town offered to freeze assessments on improvements for five years. He said that would be a big difference from the Zero taxes offered over 10 years that the company had proposed.

Hurlburt said he is seeking public input for the board to consider relative to the plans. He wants the public involved and to hear what people are hoping for. He said the company plans to create from 85 to 115 new jobs and that "would certainly be good, but as we explained to them, it would be very difficult for the select board to waive nearly a quarter million dollars in taxes over 10 years."

He said it would be difficult to take $22,000 a year off the town tax rolls. He said the board does not feel it would be fair to expect the public to take on that burden. He said the board realizes the community would gain many benefits, including a $5.5 million payroll.

He said the board is excited to have the company consider Haverhill as a new base, but "we are responsible for the tax base, residents, and budgeting; we have to look at the big picture," he said.

Hurlburt said the board will meet soon and hopes to make a public announcement on their decision.