Swedwood receives FSC certificates

Oct 11, 2006. /Lesprom Network/. Swedwood Karelia, LLC and Swedwood Tikhvin, LLC have received 9 October 2006, as first forest companies in the Karelian Republic and in Leningrad region certificates of Forest Stewardship Council on forestry management (FM) and chain of custody (COC). These are important steps in continuously upgrading of the environmental status of the companies. “We foresee a continued positive cooperation with forest authorities and the green movement in order to further strengthen the domestic and international environmental status and reputation of our forests, industry and products. We, as wood buyers, also want even further to strengthen the same reputation for sellers of wood to our industries”, Clas Boström, Swedwood Group forestry director says. Swedwood Tikhvin, LLC has forestry leases in Leningrad oblast and operates a sawmill, a furniture component factory as well as a furniture factory for ready furniture. Swedwood Tikhvin, LLC employs more than 1 300 people. Swedwood Karelia, LLC has forestry leases in Kostomuksha and Kalevala regions and a new sawmill in Kostomuksha. The next step in the product chain, a furniture component factory, is under construction. Swedwood is IKEA’s industrial group. The Swedwood Group shall own and develop manufacturing companies focused on producing wooden furniture for IKEA. An ongoing challenge for Swedwood is to reduce costs, increase efficiency and gather production know-how to benefit the IKEA customers. The Swedwood Group was founded in 1991 and is primarily based in Eastern Europe and Russia. It consists of about 35 production units with an annual turnover of more than Euro 1 billion. The number of employees is around 14 000.