Södra Timber and Martinsons Trä are to expand into North America and the Middle East after acquiring a stake in Uni4 Marketing.
SCA Timber and Holmen Timber already hold a stake in Uni4, which specialises in exporting Swedish solid wood products to countries such as Morocco, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Uni4 said that it expects to sell up to 350,000m³ of products to the North America and Middle East markets, equating to sales of SKr750m in 2008.
Södra and Martinsons said the markets that Uni4 operates in are “growing” and will provide them with access to “relatively favourable growth”.
“Our goal in acquiring an interest in Uni4 is to gain access to a highly cost-efficient organisation to the growing markets in North America and the Middle East,” said Södra president Peter Nilsson and Kenneth Wallin, president of Martinsons, in a joint statement.
Håkan Lindh, president of Holmen and chairman of the Uni4 board, said that the addition of Södra and Martinsons to the marketing firm’s ownership structure would enable it to become a “cost-efficient sales channel…on markets historically characterised by high sales costs”.
