The wood products industry and Sweden’s sawmills are key to handling and processing wood raw material from the forest in the best possible way, while replacing fossil building materials such as steel and concrete with wood is part of the solution to the climate challenge. In recent years, investments and acquisitions have doubled Holmen’s wood products business, and with the long-term outlook for wood products looking bright, the intention is to continue to grow the business.

In order to strengthen strategic capabilities and competitiveness and to streamline the governance of the business area, the expertise in the sawmill industry is now being pooled within a single industrial arm, and new functions for business development and biofuel are being added.

“Although times are tough at the moment, the long-term outlook for the wood products business is good. We are therefore going to continue to grow and develop the business further,” says Johan Padel, Senior Vice President Wood Products. “To strengthen our strategic capability, and create synergies and efficiency gains, we are now strengthening the organisation by setting up a new unit to concentrate on long-term business development, while continuing to focus on production improvements through cooperation and coordination between the production units.”

Johan Padel, Senior Vice President Wood Products.

 

 

The new head of the business development function is Karolina Svensson, who currently works centrally in Holmen as Head of Business Strategy and Planning. Karolina has considerable experience in business development, sales, marketing, strategy and business intelligence and her CV includes seven years as sales and marketing manager in the former Holmen Paper business area.

Karolina Svensson, new Head of Business Strategy and Planning.

 

 

“It feels fantastically exciting to be part of the continued development of the business and to take Holmen’s wood products business to the next level,” says Karolina. “In advancing our position in wood construction, we are improving Holmen’s ability to process the majority of the raw material from our own forests in our own industrial facilities.”

 

For more information, please contact: Johan Padel, Senior Vice President Wood Products, +46 70 214 82 44, johan.padel@holmen.com