Another acquisition in Finland

In the course of an asset deal, Binderholz Nordic took over a planing mill and a composite lumber factory from the Anaika Wood Group in Lieksa/FI. With this acquisition, Binderholz wants to further expand their position on the processing market. The parties signed the contract on the 20th of February, and the closing is scheduled for the 31st of March. No details on the purchase price were disclosed. With this takeover, Binderholz is taking another step towards full-range supplier for the Asian and US markets.

As part of the agreement, Binderholz Nordic will be taking over the entire staff of 36 employed at the Anaika Wood Group's factory and integrate them into the company. Binderholz gains the entire machine park comprising two planing lines, a finger-jointing line, a band saw, a glulam press, a stacking line and drying kilns. The existing production capacity will be increased gradually by establishing a continuous three-shift operation. Further optimizations are planned in the medium term, Binderholz informs.

Their product portfolio is primarily aimed at non-European markets like Japan, China or the USA. Binderholz is also taking over Anaika's existing JAS certification. In the future, production will primarily focus on composite lumber (for instance beams) made form pine slats manufactured in the Binderholz factory in Nurmes as well as various planed goods from spruce and pine. Running a three-shift operation, the annual production volume of planed goods is 220,000 m³ and 50,000 m³ of composite lumber. Hence, the Binderholz group's processing volume of planed and glued solid wood products totals about 1.2 million m³/yr.

The company wants to establish a pellets factory last minute for the utilization of planing chips. At the moment, Binderholz is gradually modernizing the sites in Lieksa and Nurmes, expanding the sawmill and drying capacities significantly. At the Nurmes site, a biomass heating plant is being built which will commence operation in September 2017.

The Austrian Binderholz Group took over sawmills in Lieksa and Nurmes in February 2016 from Vapo Timber. Anaika Wood is running sawmills in Soinlahti, Toivakka and Lieksa.