The Hasslacher Group is acquiring a stake in Element5, a manufacturer of mass timber products who specializes in the design, manufacture, and assembly of modern engineered timber buildings. The company is headquartered near Toronto, Canada, employs over 100 people and produces cross-laminated and glue-laminated timber for the North American market.
“With our strategic investment in Element5, we are consistently pursuing our path of internationalization. We have been present in the North American market with our mass timber construction products for more than eight years, where we also see the potential for significant future growth,” Christoph Kulterer, CEO and owner of the Hasslacher Group, says. “Together with Element5, we can now offer the North American market our entire portfolio with shorter delivery times, greater capacity, and a full spectrum of engineering expertise.”
According to the Hasslacher Group, the investment in Element5 makes it the first European company to invest in the development and expansion of mass timber production capacity on the North American market. With the invested capital, a new state-of-the-art glulam production line will be started up in St. Thomas, Ontario, complementing the existing CLT line. The new line will enable Element5 to produce a full range of machined glue-laminated beams, columns, and assemblies. The goal is to create a high-performance production site with a total mass timber production capacity of up to 100,000 m³ a year, which is scheduled to go into operation in the first half of 2025.
Element5 was established in 2015, and acquired a small CLT production facility in Québec in 2016. In 2019, the company decided to use its budget of CAD 50 million to build a cross-laminated timber plant in Ontario in order to serve the markets in the Canadian province as well as in the Midwestern United States. The entire production line was built and installed by Ledinek.
