Metsä Group’s chief financial officer Atte Ailio confirmed to TTJ that the sale had just been completed in a move which effectively sees Metsä discontinue its pole business and focus on its core operations – industrial scale production and sales of Nordic sawn timber, timber upgrades, plywood and Kerto LVL.
Newport-based preservation specialist BBH, acquired by Metsä in 1998, had an annual turnover of £16.2m in 2014 and employs 29 people.
Finland-based ScanPole, one of Europe’s largest timber pole producers, is part of Iivari Mononen Oy, which also operates Prima Timber, a producer of preservative-treated sawn, planed and round timber, as well as a sales operation in the UK.
The business acquisition strengthens Iivari Mononen Group’s expansion strategy and market position in the European pole business. Iivari Mononen’s budgeted turnover for 2015 is €58m and it has 130 employees.
BBH will continue to operate in Newport, as a subsidiary company of the ScanPole group. The company will focus on producing creosote impregnated wood poles and byproducts mainly to its current market areas.
This business acquisition does not have any effect on the other companies within the ScanPole Group.
(More on this story will appear in the next issue of TTJ)
