Stora Enso has decided to keep its Central European sawmill and building-solutions business, ending a strategic review that had put a substantial part of its timber operations up for possible sale. The group now intends to improve profitability through restructuring, with measures potentially affecting up to 250 employees.<\/p>\n
Announced on November 10, the decision preserves a manufacturing network spanning seven sawmills in Austria, Czechia, Poland and Lithuania, together with three cross-laminated timber plants, wood procurement and international sales and distribution. Stora Enso concluded that the business could deliver better results under its ownership despite difficult market conditions.<\/p>\n
The review had raised a larger question about the place of sawmilling and engineered wood within a group increasingly concentrated on renewable packaging. When it began the assessment in November 2025, Stora Enso acknowledged the Central European business\u2019s strong market position but said it offered limited strategic and operational synergies with its core packaging activities.<\/p>\n
Its scale made a possible disposal significant. At the time, the seven sawmills had a combined annual production capacity of approximately 3 million m\u00b3, while the operations under review generated around half of the Wood Products segment\u2019s sales. A sale would therefore have substantially reduced Stora Enso\u2019s presence in European sawn timber and timber construction products.<\/p>\n
Keeping the business places the emphasis on operating performance. Management sees room to improve earnings through changes to the organisation and production network. Chief executive Hans Sohlstr\u00f6m said the business needed to adapt to changing requirements, with slow market growth and rising costs behind the proposed measures.<\/p>\n
The first identified production change concerns Brand, in northern Austria. Stora Enso proposes closing the mill\u2019s small-log line by the end of the first quarter of 2027 because it would require significant investment. The other production line and wood procurement activities would continue, and customers of the affected line would be supplied from other mills. The closure and workforce measures remain subject to consultations.<\/p>\n
Brand is an established part of the group\u2019s processing network, producing sawn timber, beams and glued laminated timber. Stora Enso lists total annual site capacity at 440,000 m\u00b3 of sawn timber and 295,000 m\u00b3 of processed timber. The proposed withdrawal of one line would reduce activity within that operation while retaining the rest of the site.<\/p>\n
The decision also needs to be read alongside Stora Enso\u2019s changes to its Nordic production network. The group has permanently closed the Veitsiluoto sawmill in Finland and plans to close the CLT unit at Gruv\u00f6n in Sweden by the end of 2026. Sawn timber production will remain at Gruv\u00f6n.<\/p>\n
In its October interim report, Stora Enso explicitly linked the Swedish CLT closure to improving utilisation of its three CLT plants in Austria and Czechia. Those plants form part of the Central European business it has now decided to keep. Retention therefore gives continuity to the production network on which the group is concentrating its remaining CLT operations.<\/p>\n
For Stora Enso, the next stage is to make that retained network more profitable with fewer operating lines and an adjusted workforce. The ownership question has been settled; the planned changes at Brand provide the first concrete indication of how management intends to improve the business.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Stora Enso has decided to keep its Central European sawmill and building-solutions business, ending a strategic review that had put a substantial part of its timber operations up for possible sale. The group now intends to improve profitability through restructuring, … Continue reading