Latvijas Finieris Group reached a turnover of 250.9 million euros in 2018, which is 9,5% more than in 2017. Achievement of such good results has been ensured by investments made in previous years, as well as company’s position in the market, delivering high value-added birch plywood products to industrial clients in more than 60 countries around the world.

In 2018, almost 26 million euros were invested in development. According to the Group’s medium-term investment program, preparation works for the expansion project of Verems mill have been started and will continue this year. A significant part of the investments has been directed to increase veneer production capacity in the Group’s factories in Lithuania and Finland, thus diversifying access to wood resources and ensuring greater co-operation possibilities to forest owners in these countries. Also, considerable investments were devoted to the development of plywood products, as well as to the efficiency of production processes, resulting in a total productivity increase of more than 10% last year. It has helped to continue the pay growth program launched seven years ago, within which the average gross wage in Latvijas Finieris increased by 7% in 2018. Overall, the Group last year provided work to an average of 2,665 people a month, of which 2,200 worked in Latvia, moreover on average 8200 euros of labour taxes were paid per employee per year (mandatory social insurance contributions and personal income tax). It should be noted that in 2018 also 1.56 million euros were paid as the green electricity mandatory procurement component.

This year, competition in the birch plywood market has intensified, considering the shift in trade positions in the global political arena between a number of large regions, uncertainties in the Brexit issue, and the slowdown of development in many European economies. Therefore, Latvijas Finieris looks to the forecasts of this year with caution. In order to balance production opportunities with market demand, the development of product and customer service, including in regions outside the European Union, is one of the priorities.

An important step in this direction is the resumption of active work of U.S.A. regional product development and sales office Riga Wood North America, Inc., thus strengthening the presence of birch plywood brand RIGA on the North American market. Moreover, after several years of research, this year the production of a new Green Glue RIGA ECOlogical was started on an industrial scale, where a significant part of the fossil raw material (phenol and formaldehyde) is replaced by bio-based renewable Lignin – one of the natural components of wood. In this way, Latvijas Finieris is taking a step forward with global megatrends in bioeconomy, offering to RIGA customers a significant competitive advantage in the increasingly green business environment.