From tree to garden cabin

15.000 ha of own woodlands in the group of companies, a harvest of 700 000 m³ roundwood a year, four production plants, an own sawmill and almost three decades of expertise - the requirements for playing a central role on the market for timber are good, particularly as the location is favourable for raw material - only Nordic spruce - as well as for costs and quality: Estonia is the home of Palmako. The company sees itself as leading manufacturer of wood-in-the-garden products, laminated wood and milled roundwood in Estonia and one of the largest producers of garden cabins made from wood in Europe.
"Our main and anchor market is Germany," reports Hans Bußmann. He is managing director of the German subsidiary from where the overall market of the DACH region is operated.
Even though the coronavirus caused chaos to plans, as for all other market players, and the manufacturer had overflowing order books, longer delivery times than usual and partly sold-out assortments - the strategy remains in place despite all of this: after Palmako has already largely covered the area of garden cabins and is listed in all major DIY store groups, growth is to come from other product groups. "We want to also be stronger on the market with play equipment as well as fence panels," announces Bußmann.
Palmako belongs to the Lemeks Group which was founded by the forestry engineer Jüri Külvik in 1993. Four years later, the subsidiary Palmako was launched as garden wood specialist. Not least because the Palmako brands Imprest for milled roundwood, Construct with laminated wood and the pellet manufacturer Heitit were also added, is Bußmann able to refer to the sustainability of the utilisation of raw materials: "We use 100 per cent of the roundwood". In addition, Palmako is FSC certified for the majority of its production. A separate business within the group of companies takes care of reforestation.
Palmako alone processes 50 000 m³ roundwood and 200 000 m³ sawn timber a year. In order to secure the supply of Nordic spruce, wood is additionally purchased from sawmills from the Baltic region, Russia and Finland with which long-term business relationships exist.
Of the 1 000 employees in the Lemeks Group with its 34 subsidiaries in eight countries (as well as Estonia and Germany these are France, Great Britain, Latvia, Finland, Sweden and Norway, the subsidiary in the USA is currently being established) more than 300 work at Palmako - at state-of-the-art production sites.
"Palmako is well…