Stora Enso to Acquire Finnish Sawmill Company Junnikkala

On Monday, Stora Enso announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of the Finnish sawmill company Junnikkala Oy. This acquisition aims to secure a cost-efficient wood supply to Stora Enso’s packaging board site in Oulu, Finland, and to support Stora Enso’s wood products business with new production assets.

Junnikkala is a Finnish producer of sawn timber and processed wood products for domestic and export markets. It operates three sawmills in Finland including its new state-of-the-art sawmill, less than 10 kilometers from the Stora Enso Oulu site. The acquired sawmills will create synergies with the integrated board site in Oulu through long-term supply of raw materials such as wood chips, pulpwood, and internally sourced biomass going from the sawmills to the Oulu site.

The transaction will strengthen Stora Enso’s wood supply operations and reinforce its position in sawlog and pulpwood sourcing in the Baltic Rim wood market. Stora Enso’s annual wood procurement in Finland will hence increase by approximately 1.7 million m³ and the Group’s total sawmilling capacity by approximately 700,000 m³.

Junnikkala’s sawmill operations will be fully incorporated into Stora Enso’s Wood Products division, and the wood procurement activities will be integrated into the Forest division. The acquisition is expected to gradually generate synergies of approximately EUR 15 million annually once the new sawmill in Oulu is fully operational and will have no operational impact on Stora Enso’s current sawmills. Junnikkala’s sales in 2023 were EUR 115 million (EUR 141 million in 2022). The company has approximately 230 employees all of whom will transfer to Stora Enso.