Since the joint stock company Latvijas Finieris opened its state-of-the-art birch plywood factory in Latvia in 2000 the company has worked hard at getting to know its customers and developing the environmental aspects of its business.
It has also continued to invest heavily and a e40m programme for 2001-2003 is principally aimed at birch plywood production. The majority of that investment is to be directed towards veneer handling and plywood processing – overlaying with films and mechanical processing – and volumes of glued production are planned to reach 235,000m3 by 2003.
To keep abreast of growing environmental awareness, procedures are being put in place to increase the automisation level of the production process, ensure raw material economy, decrease production waste and minimise the impact of any harmful effects the production process might have on the environment.
Latvijas Finieris has developed a wide network of sales offices and agencies. That network is being expanded region by region and in January this year the company launched operations in Spain with the opening of its sales office, Latvijas Finieris España, SL.
Spain is the company’s fourth sales office, joining others in Germany – Latvijas Finieris Deutschland GmbH; Britain – the Latvian Plywood Company which also sells products into Ireland and in which Latvijas Finieris has a 50% share; and Riga Wood Sweden AB which covers the Swedish and Norwegian markets.
Quality requirements
Company sales manager Martins Lacis said: “These offices enable us to be closer to buyers and to know what their quality requirements are. It also keeps us informed about possible market and product development trends.”
Latvijas Finieris co-operates with both distributors and big industrial end users, including Scandinavian plywood producing trade companies, and the wide sales partnership network includes France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, the Czech Republic, Canada – in all more than 30 countries.
Mr Lacis said modernisation of the communication and information system enables all the joint stock company’s enterprises to share knowledge. That in turn enables them to operate in a more dynamic way, further meeting customer requirements.
“Our future potentials are believed to be product development and logistics in order to use all the advantages that our geographical situation and resources can offer,” he said.
In order to control production within the company, standardised evaluation methods such as EN 310 and EN 438-2 are widely used. The data is used for analysis, problem identification and determines effective preventative procedures.
To further improve control in the production process, another e320,000 is being invested. Technical equipment in the laboratories at all the mills is being upgraded which, Mr Lacis said, will allow sample sheets to be checked in accordance with standardised methods and also enable buyers’ specific requirements to be taken into account.
Positive attitude
Latvijas Finieris has tried to demonstrate a positive attitude towards the environment and forest resources. “One of the ways of doing this is by reducing any harmful effects our production processes could have on the environment. The other is to promote sustainable forest management certification processes,” said Mr Lacis.
Latvijas Finieris has been involved in the forest certification process for a long time and supports the implementation of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) principles and criteria in Latvian forestry.
Mr Lacis said: “Latvijas Finieris is now ready to participate in the sale of certified wood. In order to be able to purchase bigger volumes of certified veneer logs it is necessary for other forestries to receive FSC certification – therefore plywood production quantities by Latvijas Finieris depends highly on further FSC certification process development on Latvia.”
It is planned to develop further chain of custody this year – and the company has also set itself the goal of working in full compliance with ISO 14001:1996 during 2002.
The procurement of birch logs is based on nearby regional resources mainly Latvia’s – standing at 95%. The company last year increased production volumes by 5.4% producing 176,600m3 of glued products including 166,000 m3 of plywood.
Much is shipped from its own port, Vecmilgravis which has a capacity of 25,000m3 of timber products per month. It has an open storage area for 50,000m3 as well as undercover facilities.
