Irish state forester Coillte Teoranta has entered the house building business for the first time by embarking on a Euros5m joint venture with Austria’s GriffnerHaus.
The venture, Griffner Coillte, will eventually see an Irish range of prefabricated timber frame Griffner homes manufactured at a new factory in Mullingar and marketed under the GriffnerHomes brand.
Griffner Coillte spokesman Peter Sullivan said: “It’s part of a strategy within Coillte to extend the business, adding value to wood and generally deepening the wood culture in Ireland and extending timber as a building material.”
A range of energy efficient homes for the Irish market has been developed by three architectural practices and these will be made at GriffnerHaus in Austria until the Mullingar factory is operational, expected to be at the end of April 2003.
It is planned to produce 200 homes per year in the medium term. Each home, aimed at the private individual and developer markets, comes complete with plumbing, electrical services, and exterior cladding.
A brochure will be released in October or November, when the first home will be built in western Ireland.
