At our company’s seventh factory, the second in France, the construction of the first warehouse and office floor is now complete. We envisage the first lathe to become operational in the third quarter of this year, with a production capacity of 70,000 m3 of green veneer.
Located in Troyes in the Sud Champagne region of northern France, the new factory, whose construction began in 2021, has seen the completion of its first warehouse and first office floor, operational since May. Throughout the month of June, installation of the second floor will also be finalised.
The construction of this factory is a phased project and will ultimately cover an area of 40,000 m2. We envisage the first lathe to become operational in the third quarter of this year, with delivery and installation of the first peeling line in the coming months, enabling the consumption of 150,000 m3 of poplar and the production of 70,000 m3 of green veneer. From then on, we will continue with the remaining phases, comprising the installation of the drying lines and assembly of a second lathe, which will double the production of veneer and, in a final phase, all the second transformation lines (press) for manufacturing finished products will be added.
This plant, which joins our existing one in France in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, will have access to the Seine and Aube river basins, the most poplar-rich basin in Europe, and 90,000 hectares of plantations within a 300 km radius of Troyes. This is the tree we use most often to make plywood because its high-quality wood, produced in fast-growing plantations, stands out for its sustainability and strong capacity to capture CO2 from the atmosphere, providing greater protection for the environment.
The strategic location of the new factory will ensure access to sustainably sourced raw materials, mitigating the carbon footprint and environmental impact of the operation to meet our sustainability manifesto. In this vein, based on our commitment to respect and look after our surroundings, an innovative green “éco-pâturage” grazing project has been introduced on land not yet under construction, providing a living environment for animals in the area so that they can maintain and clean up tracts of land that are difficult to access.
This plant will operate as a “smart factory”. The entire production process will be fully automated with 4.0 tools being used to optimise results. Recruitment is also under way for the maintenance, forestry, human resources, administration and management departments, with fifty new recruits envisaged by the end of the year and a further 300 employees in the final phase.
The start of operations at this new plant will give us a total of seven production plants: five in Spain (in La Rioja, the Basque Country and León) and two in France (one in the Aquitaine region and the new factory in Troyes, in the Grand Est - Sud Champagne region).
