Concentration on timber

With a turnover of almost € 200 mio and a range of manufacturing processes, from sawmilling, planing and timber impregnation through to the production of doors, windows and garden furniture, as well as timber element house building, Norvik Timber Industries is one of the largest forest industry companies operating in the Baltic states. The company, which is part of the Icelandic-owned Norvik Group, has been involved in the Baltic forest industry since the 1990s. Norvik Timber Industries has built a diversified group of companies involved in all stages of the forest industry’s supply chain. The group operates in a decentralized manner, so that all companies within the group function independently: they have responsibility for their own strategy, sales, financing and operations. In its own estimation the group has grown to become one of the largest, privately-owned mechanical forest industry companies in Europe. In 2006 Norvik acquired Vika Wood, the largest sawmill in the Baltic region with an annual production of 280 000 m³. Over the past three years the Latvian sawmill has gone through a major € 15 mio process of modernization, which has made it one of the most modern and efficient in Europe. Byko, today the leading builders’ merchant and DIY company in Iceland and also part of the Norvik group, was for several decades an established buyer of timber products from the Soviet Union. Realizing the necessity to develop a new timber sourcing strategy after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the independence of the Baltic states, Norvik established its first presence in Latvia by setting up Byko-Lat. The company was initially a timber sourcing company for Iceland, but grew to become a leading timber exporter from Latvia to other European countries such as the UK, Holland and France. Byko-Lat has grown since its start to become one of the largest timber industry companies of the Baltic region. It is, amongst other things, the largest planing mill and timber impregnation company in the Baltics and a specialist in supplying the European DIY sector with a large variety of timber products. The company is also the largest Baltic manufacturer of fence panels, garden furniture and other products made of timber for the garden and leisure sector that are sold to merchants and the DIY sector throughout Europe. Sourcing of the raw material for the whole production process is done both from within the Norvik Timber Industries group and externally. With a specialized…