City-to-village visit: Södra Wood invests in the future and local employment

Representatives of the City of Hamina visited Södra Wood Oy on Wed. 18.6.2025 as part of the City in a Village visit series. The purpose of the visit was to get to know local business operations and their development. The visitors were received by CEO Tomi Liikkanen, who has been an employee of the company since 2002. During their visit, the city representatives received a good introduction to the company and had a good discussion about the company's future prospects and needs.

Södra Wood is a Swedish-owned, cooperative company founded in 1938. It has a total of seven sawmills and a total of 3400 employees. The subsidiary in Finland is the only unit located in Finland. The unit located in the Port of HaminaKotka has 41 employees and approximately 10 people are employed through subcontracting. The company also employs three summer workers and two schoolchildren in Hamina, as it is important for the company to enable young people to be employed. 

Most of the timber is transported to the port of Hamina by rubber-tired trucks, but the company's rail connection also enables timber to be transported by train. Timber is mainly sourced from Stora Enso and Metsä Group. Timber leaving Södra by ship is sorted, debarked, sawn, crated, dried, planed and packaged. All finished products, mainly strength-graded planed spruce timber, are delivered by ship. Approximately 90% of exports are to the UK and Ireland. Approximately 200,000 cubic metres of timber are exported from Finland annually, and ships depart 2–4 times a month. Other significant market areas are China, Korea, Belgium and Finland.

Södra Wood Hamina has invested significantly in developing its operations in recent years. Significant investments have included the commissioning of new kilns in 2015, the acquisition of a 3D/X-ray log meter in 2019, and the construction of a bio-heating plant in 2022. The company is also planning new, smaller investments in the near future.