Versowood buys Hankasalmi sawmill

The largest Finnish wood processing company, Versowood based in Vierumaeki/FI, will take over the sawmill and planing mill in Hankasalmi/FI from Vapo Timber, Jyväskylä/FI, at the turn of the year. At twelve locations, Versowood already has 682 employees. With the purchase of Hankasalmi, this number will increase to over 800. The lumber production is set to increase by 260,000 m³ to 1.35 million m³/yr. This will move the company owned by the brothers Pekka (49.3 %) and Ville Kopra (50.7 %) up to rank 12th in the list of Europe's largest lumber producers. It is now larger than Klenk Holz, Oberrotweil/DE, or Rettenmeier Holz, Wilburgstetten/DE. The structure will be even bigger when the mills of the Westas group are counted in, of which Ville Kopra holds 85%. Only in September, the group had been formed by the purchase of the two sawmills Raunio Saha, Kosiki/FI, and Pihlava Saha, Pori/FI, (see link 1) with a total lumber output of 340,000 m³/yr. Together, the brothers Kopra control an output of 1.69 million m³/yr which ranks them 7th (ex equo with UPM Timber) among the largest sawmills in Europe. Vapo Timber, in which the Finnish State is majority share holder, will retain only two sawmills after the transaction - Nurmes/FI and Lieksa/FI .