The forest family Sodra

the Forest Family

Swedish forestry cooperative Sodra has been investing heavily to ensure its more than 50,000 forest owner members are maximising the ever-growing opportunities for pulp and paper. Emma-Jane Batey spoke to Sodra’s head of marketing and business development, Marcus Hellberg, to learn more.

AS Sweden’s largest forestry cooperative, Sodra is made up of over 50,000 forest owners who come together to form an international forest industry group with operations based on responsible forestry. Sodra’s core activity sees its members convert raw material into sawn timber, pulp for paper and dissolving, as well as providing green energy.

Well known for doing things its own way, Sodra is proudly different. Head of marketing and business development Marcus Hellberg told Industry Europe how this is achieved. He said, “We challenge expectations of what a forestry company should be. We have a strong sense of self-confidence and we act clearly. Together with our members, we are showing what it means to be a next generation forest company.”

Sodra sees itself both as a forest-owner association and as an international forest industry group, with its operations based on processing its members’ forest products. This unique position means it is continually processing ‘its own’ raw material at its own mills, with the forest harvested by its owner-members. So rather than ‘big companies’ owning the forest, in Sweden, thanks to Sodra, it remains the smaller forest owners that dominate – albeit with the strength and support of the huge Sodra family behind them.

Mr Hellberg continued, “This is a huge advantage and a huge differentiator. Our unique history shows how individual forest owners, with their experience, commitment and foresight, have come together over the years to create a successful, growing industrial group. It’s not comparable to big industrial forestry companies – other than we can easily compete on price, flexibility and availability. But where we are completely different is that we are so very close to the people that are actually caring for and harvesting the forests. They are in our family.”

Renewable and responsible

Sodra’s business is built on value-generating relationships and a long-term approach, as proven by its well-established relationships with both forest owners and customers. There is an overall focus on promoting the profitability of its members’ forest estates by providing advice and support with regards to sustainable forestry, as well as by contributing to a market-based rate of return on their forest products. Mr Hellberg explained, “The wood from the forest estates of our members is processed in one of our three pulp mills or converted into sawn and planed timber, interior wood products, biofuel and pulp for the pulp market. We purposefully focus on innovation to develop new products based on renewable wood raw material.”

Sodra has one of the largest sawmill operations in Sweden and is a major supplier of softwood sulphate pulp to the European pulp market. Its three pulp mills are largely fossil fuel-free as well as actually generating surplus energy, which is then sold as bio-based products such as green energy and district heating. In 2016, Sodra posted sales figures of more than SEK 18 billion and its wood volume was 15 million m³sub (cubic metres solid volume underbark).

These impressive figures have also yielded strategic investment, with 2016 seeing over SEK 6 billion (around €700 million) spent on investment and expansion projects. Over two thirds of this was

spent on ‘ramping up’ Sodra’s west coast mill, which is soon to reach capacity. Mr Hellberg said, “We started this project years ago and it’s taken an 18-month period to really ramp up our west coast mill’s production to the point where we’re almost at capacity. By the end of the year we’ll be at about 700,000 tonnes, so we’re working hard now to maximise our investment by fine tuning, synchronising and consolidating what we’ve done so everything’s running smoothly and is well connected.”

old yet fresh

As an 80-year old company that sources its raw materials in a different way, Sodra has ‘sustainability built into our business model’. As such, it has a passionate army of fans. Mr Hellberg noted, “Customers ask for Sodra as they love how we work and who we are. Customers know that we are made up of the actual forest owners and that we are here to combine everyone’s efforts into the best products. But it’s not all just about being a big forest family – we are focused on increasing our competitive edge too. Our sourcing is not just better for the environment and the forest owners, it’s better for the customers too. It’s direct, it’s responsible and it’s sustainable.”

With continued investment and expansion planned, Sodra expects to see further growth in the coming years. Mr Hellberg concluded, “It’s no secret that we plan to further expand our east coast pulp mill, even though it is already one of the biggest in the region. Not everything has been decided yet about this project but our owners are in this for the long term, so we know it will be done with the same Sodra spirit.” n