Setra acquires operations in Kalix

Setra, Sweden’s largest wood products company, is acquiring family owned Rolfs Såg & Hyvleri AB in the municipality of Kalix. The company, which operates an integrated sawmill and processing business, has annual sales of approximately SEK 200 million and some 80 employees. The acquisition was carried out on 20 December 2006.

Kent Torwald, President and CEO of Setra Group: “Our expressed aim is to grow through a higher value-added content. Rolfs Såg provides a strategic complement to Setra’s operations in northern Sweden, in terms of both skills and capacity for increased value added.”

Rolfs Såg’s operations comprise a sawmill with integrated processing. By exploiting synergies with Setra’s other production units in northern Sweden – primarily the sawmills in Seskarö and Lövholmen – Setra will have the capacity to double its value-added volume.

Kent Torwald continues: “This acquisition strengthens our position within value-added processing. We will also gain access to a smooth-functioning purchasing organisation for local raw material.”

As a result of this acquisition, Anders Olofsson, current president and a major owner of Rolfs Såg, will become head of all Setra’s processing units in northern Sweden. These comprise, in addition to the facility at Rolfs Såg, the processing units in Malå and Kvarnåsen.

Anders Olofsson, President of Rolfs Såg och Hyvleri AB, says: “Being part of Setra’s own development and that of the operations here in Kalix presents an exciting challenge as well as a positive opportunity for growth.”

Rolfs is community in the municipality of Kalix with just over 1,000 inhabitants. The sawmill in Rolfs was established in 1921.