Panels & Furniture Asia May/June 2022

NEWS
WINTERSTEIGER TARGETS TURNOVER OF €200 MILLION IN 2022
an increase of 38%, and €39m, an
increase of 18%, respectively.
“In 2021 all of our divisions
posted profits despite significant
investments in the future,”
highlighted Harold Kostka, CFO of
Wintersteiger.
Wintersteiger has declared its turnover
target for 2022, aiming for €200 million,
an increase from the manufacturer’s
results in 2021 which was reportedly
€168m.
According to the press release, Florestan
von Boxberg, CEO of Wintersteiger,
is convinced that despite current
procurement problems, Wintersteiger
will overcome the downturn caused
by COVID-19 this year and exceed the
€200m turnover threshold for the first
time.
The company’s sales and profits
were affected by the beginning of the
Harold Kostka, CFO
of Wintersteiger
(left), and Florestan
von Boxberg, CEO of
the company (right)
pandemic in 2020, with a collapse in
turnover of 26%.
But Wintersteiger used the crisis as an
opportunity for company acquisitions
and a product drive. The general
importer for Norway and Sweden
was acquired in 2021. At the start of
2022, a majority stake was acquired in
a mechanical engineering company
for Wintersteiger’s Division Woodtech
near Stuttgart, Germany, along with
a minority stake in an IT company in
Vienna, Austria.
Last year, the divisions Seedmech and
Woodtech also saw growth up to €44m,
In 2022, with turnovers of around
€50m per division, Wintersteiger
will reach a size that allows more
independence. This was the
argument the management board
used when announcing the spin-off
of the four divisions into independent
companies, a production and supply
chain limited company and the
formation of a strategic holding as a
major project for the current year.
“We are delegating decisions to
the areas where they can be made
proficiently and quickly,” said
Boxberg about the restructuring.
“This will allow us to focus even
more on the needs of our customers
in the divisions, and the production
company will be able to further drive
forward the industrialisation of our
products.” P
FSC TO SUSPEND CERTIFICATES IN UKRAINE CONFLICT AREAS
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
has announced that it will suspend
FSC certificates in the invaded regions
of Ukraine, with effect from 4 May
2022.
According to FSC, the reason for
this decision took into account how
government legislation “cannot be
enforced” in Ukraine conflict regions,
and it is “not safe” for auditors to carry
out their work. Such factors increase
the risks of forests not being managed
according to FSC’s standards.
However, FSC remains determined
to continue to support Ukrainian
certificate holders as far as possible
and therefore will allow certification
bodies — the independent auditors of
FSC certificate holders — to continue
their work in areas not affected by war,
for example through remote audits
and extending the time between
audits to over a year, if required.
FSC reported that it has worked closely
with colleagues based in Ukraine to
provide as clear as possible guidance
on where the armed conflict zones are.
For this purpose, FSC has identified
three categories of Ukraine
information sources regarding the
location of conflict zones. First are
public sources, including but not
limited to, the Ministry of Defence
of Ukraine, The Armed Forces of
Ukraine, The State Emergency
Service of Ukraine, and more. The
second is the Ukraine State Forest
Resources Agency, for state-owned
forests, and the third is directly
from local authorities within
Ukraine.
Certificate holders importing FSC
material from Ukraine are required
to amend their supply chain due
diligence to avoid sourcing from
zones of armed conflict. P
12 Panels & Furniture Asia | May / June 2022