Greenply Industries Sets its Footprint in West Africa

MUMBAI:
Marking a significant development in Indian plywood industry, Greenply Industries Limited (Greenply), India’s largest interior infrastructure brand commanding a 26% market share in the organised plywood market of India, divulged today details on its newly installed manufacturing facility at Gabonese Republic (Gabon) in West Africa.

The facility located at the NKOK Special Economic Zone is spread over an area of 10 hectares manufacturing Okoume face veneers with thickness ranging from 0.2mm and upwards. The Company has put an initial investment of close to Euro 11 million towards installing this facility which has a total processing capacity of 96000 Cubic meters (CBM) of Okoume Timber into face veneers annually manufactured out of Okoume timber, a natural hardwood timber of superior quality, harvested under the Sustainable Forest Management plan.

The company plans to scale up its processing capacity from current 3000 CBM per month to 8000 CBM per month by March 2019 with an additional investment outlay in the tune of Euro 4 million to be made into the Facility. It targets to hit a capacity utilisation of 55% by FY ‘19 and scale up to 100% by FY ’21. Greenply Gabon is also involved in Saw Milling of Okoume and other hardwood species. Presently the species of hardwood being sawn are Padouk and Tali.

The Company also plans to start its own forestry operations in 2019 to augment its raw material supplies. Treading into international territory to secure a viable alternative source for its face veneers is aligned with the plywood major’s emphasis of building a sustainable operational framework within the organisation and partnering the Indian plywood industry in its endeavor of maintaining ecological balance.

Rajesh Mittal, Managing Director, Greenply Industries Limited stated, “At Greenply, we are continually striving on building a sustainable operational framework crucial for continued value creation. We are constantly working on capacity building and securing resource availability. This has inspired Greenply to go beyond and explore newer territories. Greenply is one of the first few Indian companies to set up a manufacturing unit located in NKOK Special Economic Zone in Gabon, West Africa. Gabon is the place where we have found a sustainable and economic solution to restore the ecological imbalance caused due to the cutting of Gurjan trees.”

Gabon is one of the few places in the world that is opulent in a particular species of timber called Okoume – a natural superior quality hardwood timber harvested under the Sustainable Forest Management plan. It is widely distributed across Gabon and yields naturally durable timber, and the quality is considered at par with Gurjan wood, which forms the primary source for face veneers of Indian plywood industry. A switch to Okoume is the need of the hour for the plywood industry to grow as it is a sustainable source for face veneer at economical prices and also helps the industry to strike the required ecological balance.