AssiDomän leads the way
AssiDomän leads the way AssiDomän's sawmill in Malå will be the first sawmill in the Nordic countries to concentrate wholly on FSC-labelled products. "The number of customers who request independently certified forest products is increasing all the time," says Jan Jonsson, managing director of AssiDomän Nord Trä, the company that operates Malå sawmill. AssiDomän expects deliveries of FSC-labelled timber to reach an annual volume 3 of 100,000 m by the end of 1998. Deliveries are currently made to Belgium, Holland, Germany, Sweden and the UK. Customers in Denmark and Italy have also expressed an interest. 3 Malå sawmill has annual production capacity of 205,000 m . AssiDomän will thus be increasing its overall production of FSC-labelled products now that Malå will be focusing exclusively on FSC-labelled timber. During the spring of 1998, AssiDomän's entire forest holding of 3.3 million hectares received FSC certification. The company thus accounts for nearly one third of all the FSC-certified forest in the world, which in total amounts to 10 million hectares divided among 115 forests in 25 countries. FSC certification indicates that forest is managed in accordance with criteria for environmental consideration, social responsibility and economic sustainability established by the Forest Stewardship Council, an independent international organisation. Five of AssiDomän's eight sawmills have currently received "Chain of Custody" certificates. These guarantee that FSC-labelled timber is handled separately from other timber throughout the entire production chain. Members of the Forest Stewardship Council include many of the world's environmental organisations (including the WWF), representatives of indigenous peoples, several converting businesses and some forest products companies, of which AssiDomän is one. AssiDomän Skog & Trä AB 20 August 1998 For further information please contact: Mikael Eliasson, director, strategic planning and commercial development, AssiDomän Skog & Trä. Tel. +46 8 655 90 00 Paul Micklefield, Managing Director AssiDomän Forest and Timber Ltd, AssiDomän Skog & Trä. Tel: + 44 410 90 57 50. AssiDomän is one of Europe's leading forest product companies. Production is concentrated on sawn timber, packaging paper and packaging. The Group is one of the world's largest forest owners with a sales turnover of around SEK 21 billion in 1997. The Group has 17,000 employees. ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1998/08/20/19990412BIT00350/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1998/08/20/19990412BIT00350/bit0002.pdf