Latvijas Finieris Group reached a turnover of 229.1 million euros in 2017, which is 7% more than in 2016. With stable demand continuing in 2017, Latvijas Finieris exported a total of 185 million euros of products, mostly to cooperation partners on the European continent (83%) and the Asia region.

In 2017, Latvijas Finieris Group invested 21 million euros into the development of products and production processes as well as increasing work productivity and quality, while this year a 200 million euro investment programme for 2018 – 2023 is being finalized. Within its framework, three important projects are implemented to develop birch processing capacity in Kurzeme, the Lithuanian mill Likmere and the Finnish mill Sastamala; investments are also planned into expansion of birch plywood product range and growth of production volumes within the Group. Regional development and stabilization of resource availability allows to look positively into the future, estimating turnover growth of up to 10% in 2018.

In order to promote further development of Latvijas Finieris, a decision was made during a meeting of shareholders on 15 June to increase the share capital of the company from 45.5 million to 86.5 million euros. Considering changes in the Commercial Code that facilitate granting of shares to employees, the shareholders of Latvijas Finieris have also decided to issue employee shares and employee options in a total amount of 10 million euros. Thereby it is planned to involve approximately 250 business unit heads and specialists in the shareholder structure of the company during the next three years, thus promoting their attraction to the company and motivating them to participate in the achievement of the long-term targets of the company and the implementation of its strategy.

The total number of employees of the Latvijas Finieris Group in 2017 was 2 700 of which 2 200 worked in Latvia. In total, the business units of the Group in Latvia paid 19.3 million euros in taxes in 2017 (11.2 million of which were mandatory social insurance contributions and 6.4 million personal income tax). An additional 2.3 million euros were paid in the form of the electricity mandatory procurement component.

It should be mentioned that the business volume of Latvijas Finieris in the second half of the previous year was affected by untypically warm and moist weather, prohibiting the forestry sector to ensure full deliveries of wood resources. Therefore, in December 2017 and January 2018, for the first time in the company history, labour costs of the Group were partially covered by the Income Security Fund. This is a stability tool established by Latvijas Finieris in 2011, whereby regular savings are made with the purpose to maintain work places and trained specialists, ensuring compensation stability for employees during a time of significant, sustained, but temporary market drops or non-availability of wood resources.