Finnforest has bought Louisiana-Pacific’s (LP) engineered wood business in Europe, excluding OSB, for an undisclosed sum.
The two companies already have a close relationship – with LP a major supplier of products to Finnforest – and they see the move as vital to their long-term strategic partnership.
The transaction, involving LP I-beams, LVL and rim board, takes Finnforest Building Systems closer to its stated objective of being ‘a solution provider offering a tailor made complete wood based construction package including design and delivery’.
Finnforest UK Building Systems director Kim Poulsen said: ‘We have an ambitious game plan in place regarding engineered wood production and wood products for the building and construction industry in general.’
Earlier this year Finnforest revealed plans for a multi-million pound investment in its King’s Lynn site to manufacture I-beams. The facility will be fully operational in early 2002 and the LP acquisition will help Finnforest enter the market immediately, backed by LP’s expertise in the sector in the US, UK and mainland Europe. Products from this plant will eventually replace the imported LP I-beams.
