Klausner group

Klausner group
legal form	Limited Liability Company (GmbH)
founding	1918 in St. Johann in Tirol
Seat	Oberndorf in Tirol , Austria
management	Friedrich Klausner, Leopold Stephan
Number of employees	400
Branch	Timber industry
Website	www.klausner-group.com

The Klausner Group (legal: Klausner Trading International GmbH ) is an Austrian family company in the wood industry based in Oberndorf in Tyrol . Sales and logistics are organized there. After the sale of the last German site in Saalburg-Ebersdorf in Thuringia to Mercer, production takes place exclusively in the USA. According to its own information, the company produces around 2 million cubic meters of coniferous sawn timber annually .

Klausner Trading International GmbH filed for bankruptcy on April 14, 2020.

At the same time, Klausner North America Beteiligungs GmbH filed for bankruptcy.

history

In 1918 the Klausner station sawmill, the forerunner of Klausner Holzindustrie GmbH & Co. KG, was founded by Max Klausner in St. Johann in Tirol , Austria. Seventy years later, in 1988, the existing sawing plant was modernized, increasing the capacity to 80,000 solid cubic meters per year. In 1990 the sawmill in Tyrol was producing at its capacity limit.

Klausner station sawmill, St. Johann in Tirol - end of 1980

In 1992 the newly founded Klausner Holz Thüringen (KHT) started operations in Saalburg-Ebersdorf with a cutting capacity of more than 2.2 million sm3 / year and a planing capacity of more than 0.8 million m³ / year. The sawmill in St. Johann in Tirol was closed in 1996. The production of Klausner Nordic Timber (KNT) began in Wismar in 1998 with a cutting capacity of more than 2.0 million cubic meters / year and a planing capacity of at least 0.7 million m³ / year.

In 2004, Klausner Holz Sachsen (KHS) was founded in Kodersdorf with a cutting capacity of more than 1.2 million cubic meters / year and a planing capacity of more than 0.4 million m³ / year, and Klausner Trading International (KTI ) in Austria with the purpose of bundling the sales activities of the Klausner Group worldwide. An administrative center was built in 2005/2006 in Oberndorf in Tyrol, the current headquarters of Klausner Trading International GmbH and the management of the Klausner Group. In 2006 the sawmill of the insolvent Kühne GmbH in Adelebsen was taken over, followed by the establishment of Klausner Holz Niedersachsen (KHN) and the modernization and expansion to a cutting capacity of around 1.5 million cubic meters / year and a planing capacity of more than 0.9 million m³ / year. A further expansion of the company took place through the establishment of Klausner Holz Bayern (KHB) in Landsberg am Lech with a cutting capacity of at least 1.5 million sm3 / year and a planing capacity of more than 0.9 million m³ / year.

Klausner Trading International GmbH

In order to be able to reach the American market from the USA, the company founded Klausner Trading USA (KTU) in Myrtle Beach ( South Carolina ) in 2007 . In the same year it built a combined heat and power (CHP) plant on the premises of Klausner Holz Thuringia in Saalburg-Ebersdorf with an output of up to 50 MW (megawatts). The CHP has 35 MW of thermal energy to supply the sawn timber drying systems and produces up to 13 MW of electrical energy (electricity), which is fed into the public grid.

Klausner Holz Thuringia

As a result of the global financial crisis from 2007 onwards , lumber sales fell by around 60–70% on the US market and around 20–30% on the world market. As a result, the Klausner Group also had to cope with a sharp drop in sales and the resulting cutbacks in production. This slump in the market could not be fully compensated, which brought the company into financial difficulties. In 2008 the restructuring process began together with Roland Berger and the financing banks. For example, production at the plant in Landsberg am Lech was suspended on January 1, 2009. Later, on June 15, 2010, the factories of the Klausner Group in Wismar (Klausner Nordic Timber - KNT) and in Landsberg am Lech (Klausner Holz Bayern - KHB) were sold to the Russian Ilim Timber as part of a comprehensive renovation concept . The machines and systems at the Adelebsen plant (Klausner Holz Niedersachsen - KHN) were sold to the Swedish forest and timber group SÖDRA. The dismantling, construction and commissioning of these systems were carried out by the Klausner Group. The proceeds from the sale of plants were used to restructure and repay the Group's outstanding financial liabilities. This restructuring process was completed by 2010. On October 7, 2015, the Kodersdorf sawmill (Klausner Holz Sachsen) was sold to the Schweighofer Group . In March 2017, the remaining plant in Thuringia was sold to the Canadian timber company Mercer International. At the same time, the Klausner-US subsidiary is investing in the construction of two sawmills in the east of the USA: Klausner Lumber One (KL1) is being built in Suwanee County, Florida, near the city of Live Oak and Klausner Lumber Two (KL2) is located in North Carolina in Halifax County under construction near the city of Enfield.