A series of sawmill acquisitions across France is taking place against the backdrop of a deeper restructuring of the forest sector, where cooperatives have become fewer, larger and increasingly integrated over the past two decades.<\/p>\n
In the 1990s, around 50 forest cooperatives operated across the country. Today, only about a dozen remain, following successive mergers between neighbouring entities. This consolidation has not reduced their role\u2014on the contrary, it has significantly increased their operational scale, geographic coverage and influence over wood mobilisation. Cooperatives now manage around 2.2 million hectares, represent approximately 120,000 forest owners and mobilise some 7.2 million m\u00b3 of wood annually, with roughly 70% sold under supply contracts.<\/p>\n
Together with forest experts, they account for close to one-third of timber harvested from private forests, positioning them as key intermediaries between fragmented forest ownership and industrial demand. Their role has expanded beyond traditional forest management to include harvesting, marketing and, increasingly, downstream processing.<\/p>\n
This shift can be seen in the emergence of larger cooperative groups. Alliance For\u00eats Bois<\/span><\/span> has grown through successive mergers, including Coforouest in 2018, and now spans much of western France. It represents around 43,000 forest owners, markets close to 3 million m\u00b3 of wood annually and generates approximately \u20ac215m in turnover. More recently, For\u00eat d\u2019ici<\/span><\/span> was created in 2024 through the merger of For\u00eat et Bois de l\u2019Est, Nord Seine For\u00eat 2A and Cosylval, bringing together nearly 14,000 members across 35 departments, with revenues of around \u20ac84m.<\/p>\n Alongside this upstream consolidation, a quieter but equally significant movement is taking place downstream. Several cooperatives are extending their activities into sawmilling, acquiring existing units rather than investing in new capacity. For\u00eat d\u2019ici has followed this path, integrating a number of regional sawmills over the past decade, including Genet (2016), Capibois (2022) and Petit in 2025, a hardwood mill focused mainly on beech with plans to expand oak processing.<\/p>\n These acquisitions respond to structural conditions within the French market. While forest resources are abundant, parts of the processing sector\u2014particularly in hardwoods\u2014have weakened over time, with many small sawmills disappearing due to lack of investment or succession. This has contributed to a widening trade imbalance in wood products, estimated at around \u20ac11bn.<\/p>\n By acquiring existing sawmills, cooperatives aim to stabilise outlets for timber, maintain regional processing capacity and capture more value along the supply chain. At the same time, these units continue to source a large share of their logs externally, including from public forests managed by ONF, allowing flexibility in procurement and avoiding over-reliance on members\u2019 forests.<\/p>\n This strategy also reflects current constraints. Building new sawmills remains capital-intensive and uncertain, particularly given increasing competition for logs. Acquisitions, by contrast, provide immediate access to infrastructure, workforce and established supply networks, making them a more pragmatic route to expansion.<\/p>\n Beyond France, similar strategies are already well established. Groups such as HS Timber Group<\/span><\/span> have repeatedly reshaped their industrial footprint through acquisitions and disposals across Central and Eastern Europe, including Romania and Finland, optimising capacity and securing raw material flows across multiple regions.<\/p>\n The French model is evolving more gradually than in Northern Europe. Cooperatives such as S\u00f6dra<\/span><\/span> and Mets\u00e4 Group<\/span><\/span> have long operated at a much larger scale, combining forest management with industrial processing across sawnwood, pulp, engineered wood and bioenergy. S\u00f6dra represents around 53,000 forest owners and generated \u20ac2.7bn in revenue in 2024, while Mets\u00e4 Group, with 90,000 members, reached \u20ac5.75bn and consumes volumes close to France\u2019s total annual harvest.<\/p>\n In comparison, French cooperatives remain smaller but are moving in the same direction, gradually integrating upstream supply with downstream processing and consolidating their industrial base.<\/p>\n\n\n
\n \nIndicator<\/th>\n value<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n \n Number of cooperatives<\/td>\n 12<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Agencies \/ offices<\/td>\n 94<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Member forest owners<\/td>\n 120,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Forest area under management<\/td>\n 2.2 million ha<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Total turnover (2024)<\/td>\n \u20ac543 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Direct employees<\/td>\n 1,500<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Indirect jobs<\/td>\n 5,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Annual wood mobilisation<\/td>\n 7.2 million m\u00b3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Share sold under supply contracts<\/td>\n 70%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Forest operations per year<\/td>\n 38,400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Area replanted annually<\/td>\n 20,000 ha<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98325,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n