The Hasslacher Group (Hasslacher) is acquiring a stake in Element5. With an office in Toronto and a manufacturing plant in St. Thomas, Ontario, Element5 is a North American industry leader in the design, fabrication and assembly of contemporary mass timber structures. Element5 employs over 100 people, and produces cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glued-laminated timber (glulam) structural solutions for both Canada and the United States.
Based in Austria, Hasslacher is one of Europe’s largest and most prominent timber companies and a global innovator in the industry. With production sites across Europe, the family-run enterprise has a workforce of 2,000 people.
Leadership of both Element5 and Hasslacher will remain unchanged and both companies will continue under their current names and brands. Business and projects will continue as usual and will be executed as contracted.
The Hasslacher investment provides additional funding to the planned expansion of the Element5 facility in St. Thomas, Ontario. In addition to the existing timber line, the expanded facility will produce large, fully machined glulam beams, columns, and assemblies.
Work on this expansion (an extension of the original plant in St. Thomas), began at the end of 2023. This new investment however, means the size of the plant will now increase substantially from 130,000 square feet to over 350,000 square feet of floor space with office frontage.
The new glulam line is scheduled to go into full operation in the first half of 2025. Once completed, the facility will have a mass timber production capacity of 100,000 cubic meters annually - more than double the current production output. Total workforce is also expected to at least double to over 200 staff.
