INNO-FOREST, G2
Marketing and producing wood products and bioenergy
Risto MittESTONIA
Timo Greus FINLAND
Jenni Sjöman FINLAND
Marius Lapinskas LITHUANIA
Alfred Riezinger AUSTRIA
Bayleyegn Azene Abate AUSTRIA
Mikko Kemppainen FINLAND
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INNO-FOREST
Table of contents
Table of contents
1Foreword
2Description of Case Studies
2.1Moneral
2.2AUSTRIA Forest Office of Traun in Wolkersdorf
2.3ST Windows
2.4Ekopine
2.5K. Siaulio
2.6EESTI ENERGIA AS
2.7Güssing Renewable Energy Production
3Analysis of the present situation of enterprises
3.1Moneral
3.2AUSTRIA Forest Office of Traun in Wolkersdorf
3.3ST-Windows
3.4Ekopine
3.5K. Siaulio
3.6Eesti Energia AS
3.7Güssing Renewable Energy Production
4Short description of innovation cases
4.1Moneral
4.2AUSTRIA Forest Office of Traun in Wolkersdorf
4.3ST-Windows
4.4Ekopine
4.5K. Siaulio
4.6Eesti Energia AS
4.7Güssing Renewable Energy Production
5Analysis of the innovations
5.1Wood product innovations
5.2Bioenergy innovations
6Conclusions
Foreword
In the beginning of our work we divided our group into two groups. We found bioenergy group and wood innovation group. Bioenergy group has three members and wood innovation group consist of four members. Both groups will do their work individually and later we will put our solutions together.
Our goal is to analyze our case studies and try to find new aspects comparing each idea. Everybody will read and analyzeeach case study and will try to find new points of view. We have the same ideas but different point of views. According to our lectures we have the same information but because of different backgrounds we have seven different points of view. All together we will share the experience we already have in this course.
1Description of Case Studies
1.1Moneral
Moneral is family owned company from KiuruvesiFinland, which makes designed plates and dishes for active using and furnishing. Monerals customer groups are business gift buyers, demanding consumer customers, food service professionals and nature adventure producersall over Finland and few places in Europe.
1.2AUSTRIAForest Office of Traun in Wolkersdorf
The enterprise „ Forest Office of Traun“ is situated in Wolkersdorf in Lower Austria 20km in the North of Vienna, the capital of Austria.
It is in private ownership and the area is about 3000 ha, the prescribed yield is about 10.000m3
At the forest office there is engaged one Forest graduate who is the manager, one Forester and his apprentice. Furthermore the enterprise employs 5 fix lumberjacks, and one timber firm is engaged with 7 lumberjacks at the base of contract of work.
Branches of Enterprise: the enterprise consists of aforest- and of ahunting enterprise. Approximately 50% of the total earnings derive from timber and firewood and 30% from hunting. The main part of the rest is get by the payments of compensation for borehole locations.
1.3ST Windows
My company’s business area is to make windows. Company has about 70
employees and it is located in Haukipudas. 20km north from Oulu. ST-window
belongs to Finndomo group, one of the biggest building factory in Finland.
ST-window is subcontractor of windows to this group. Quality is the key
today with reasonable price. So the costefectness is important and I would
like to find solutions to all the questions.
1.4Ekopine
Ekopine develops and produces wood based chemicals for consumer, forestry and wood industry use. The products are environmentally friendly oils, pine oil as the main raw material. The business idea is to produce oil processing service to timber and market and sell timber that is oil processed.
The main products of the company are pine oil soap, turpentine, impregnation oils and service, pine oil soap derivates, chain saw oils and wood oils. All of them are made from environmentally friendly way and raw materials. Pine oil is distilled from northern pine and converted to many purposes as detergent and lubricant.
The turnover of the company was 151 000 € in 2005. Markets for garden timber are growing in a European scale and especially conducted to ecological chain saw oil. In Finland markets are rather small.
1.5K. Siaulio
The name of the enterprise is K. Siaulio individual enterprise. The owner of this enterprise is the main manager and the decision making person. The company has around 700 ha of forests. The number of employees is 40, including 6 employees from administration. The main production is pallets for cargos. The production is exported to Denmark and Germany. There are some building material produced from wood in this company as well, but this is mainly for domestic market.
1.6EESTI ENERGIA AS
„Eesti EnergiaAS” is a 100 per cent state-owned vertically integrated public limited company, engaged in power production, transmission, distribution and sales as well as other power-related services. The economic activity is carried out mainly in the territory of the Republic of Estonia.
Eesti Energia is also involved in the construction and maintenance of energy systems.
- Eesti Energia was established in 1939.
- Eesti Energia is fully owned by the Republic of Estonia
- The Estonian energy system is the only predominantly oil-shale based
energy production system in the world
- With a total of 479,111 customers (92% of all power consumers),
Eesti Energia has the biggest customer base in Estonia
- The total length of Eesti Energia’s power lines is 66,059 kilometers.
- Eesti Energia companies employ ~9000 people all over Estonia
1.7Güssing Renewable Energy Production
The district heating system in Güssing is the largest in Austria. It is fired by wood chips and saw-mill products with an output of 16 megawatts for about 500 customers and a pipe system of 20.000 meters length. There are 3 plants: two biomass boiler with 3 and 5 megawatts and one fuel oil boiler for peak situations with 6 megawatts. Then, as a second step, a biomass gasifies with 10 megawatts (2 megawatts electric) is planned.The electrical efficiency is about 80%. The Target groups are households, schools, the hospital etc.
2Analysis of the present situation of enterprises
2.1Moneral
Situation of the enterprise is in very beginning, because the company is under one year old. Company sells this year about 100 000 plates and dishes, but they have recourses to make 200 000 plates and dishes every year. Company had a lot of new innovations coming and they are growing their markets in Europe and other world.
2.2AUSTRIA Forest Office of Traun in Wolkersdorf
The Forest Enterprise is said to be very innovative concerning the marketing of its products.Concerning timber the main product of the forest enterprise are assortments like Veneer logs, furniture wood, saw logs, industrial wood energy wood and especially wood for barrel- making. 200mš ayear of Wine Quarter copper oak, ared-brown colored wood, (as aresult of infestation of fistulina hepatica). This is the main innovation case, the paper is dealt with. Firewood market has been growing within the last years. For wood gatherers there are free-auctions. The forest enterprise offers the service to deliver ready chopped firewood directly to the customers. For occasional heaters the enterprise pack pieces of wood in special paper bags.
All these businesses are working quite well, and the forest enterprise wants to continue their successful way of marketing.
2.3ST-Windows
Today company does not need to worry about marketing so much because it
is subcontractor of Finndomo group. But quality is always important issue
and price should be reasonable. Factory has modern machines which guarantee
good quality. Also workers have high work motivation so high quality should
be easy to keep. Goal is to sell enough good quality windows with low price,
so the cost effective processes are important.
2.4Ekopine
Ekopine is going to focus on wood protection oils in garden timber in the future because of the growing markets of the middle Europe. Garden timber like pergolas, fences and gates are growing their popularity especially in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Holland. Restrictions to the impregnation are caused the need to preserve timber in a more environmentally friendly way. While the markets are growing in the middle Europe, Finnish garden and environment construction market are still undeveloped.
2.5K. Siaulio
The situation at the moment is not too bad. The owner is not finding difficulties in the present business, but he is always looking further. He thinks that evrything has the beginning as well as the end. He is really interested in innovation processes and at the moment he is trying a possibility to make some innovations concerning bioenergy. The Lithuanian forest research institute (LFRI) is involved in that process. There have been some researches made in making biofuel of wood chips. Also he has in mind an innovation of biofuel of wood pellets. The company from Italy gave him that idea and now he is in a way of choosing one of it. The owner of the company finds lots of difficulties with the documentation and legislation and talking about the funds he trust only his own budget. He is afraid of a possible lack of wood as well and he is making some contracts with the Byelorussia. The goal of the company is to find a new product for the market. And the possible one is biofuel of wood chips.
2.6Eesti EnergiaAS
Present situation and goals:
- to continue to develop the technology for the production of electricity from oil shale
- to participate in nuclear power plant development projects
- to prioritize co-generation and renewable energy
to set up combustion turbines as a backup to wind energy
2.7Güssing Renewable Energy Production
Biomass supply. The goals of the project were the substitution of regional resources for imported energy and total substitution of fossil fuels by renewable energy.
The main activity of the renewable energy production is biomass supply to the power plant by using wood chips (60%) and residues from industry (40%). The supply is guaranteed by long term contracts.
The biomass heating system has created 46 jobs, reduced migration from the area, and encouraged small and medium-sized enterprises to move into the region. It has improved as well significantly the air quality of the city of Güssing.
3Short description of innovation cases
3.1Moneral
Innovation cases in Moneral are plate made of aspen and newest innovation is coating for the plate so it can be used many times and it can be washed.
3.2AUSTRIAForest Office of Traun in Wolkersdorf
Sucessful marketing of Oak Logs with red Heartwood deriving from Beefstake fungus by creating abrand name „Wine Quarter Copper Oak
3.3ST-Windows
Simply improving cost effectiveness. That is the most important process nowadays.
3.4Ekopine
The innovation is to produce chain saw oil by pine. The process combines both chemical and technological know-how and knowledge of garden timber and sawmills production.
3.5K. Siaulio
1. Wood chips for bioenergy. Using white alder (Alnus incana) for bioenergy mainly and regenerating those areas by spruce (Picea Abies).
2. Wood pellets for bioenergy. Using all kind of wood from own forest area and also some bought wood e.g. from Belarus.
3.6Eesti EnergiaAS
To find some bioenergetical solutions to gain energy without the usage of oil shale.
3.7Güssing Renewable Energy Production
The renewable energy is aimed at supplying aheating system and electricity for adistrict by using biomass.The idea of the innovation of the renewable energy derived from the problems in saving fuel energy supply and saving money within the district. Energy demand is the basic idea for this innovation.42% of the wood occurring in the area is good sources for energy supply.The main actors involved were the European centre for renewable energy as initiator,the district heating agency as implementer,public administrator and technical Universities to develop energy innovations.
4Analysis of the innovations
All the cases are very interesting and different from each other.
4.1Wood product innovations
The group consists of four wood product innovations. All the innovations are conducted especially to marketing and producing the product. Innovation of ST Windows is also dealing with cost-effectiveness.
Table 1.The pros and cons of the innovation cases.
Company / advantages / disadvantages / recommendationsMoneral / Unique product, growing demand / Not well known, limited market / Widen the product range
Forest Office of Traun / Unique provider, low costs of sorting / Limited stock, oak-decline / Purchase of timber of other enterprises and selling it as brand name
ST-Windows / Modern technology
Motivated workers / Not well known company / Keeping good quality
Technological development
Ekopine / Unique product, growing demand on international market (environmental regulations), technological and chemical inventions / Limited national market, too wide range of products / Cooperation with the national actors
4.2Bioenergy innovations
The main key actor for the K. Siaulio enterprise is the research of biowood energy made by Lithuanian forest research institute (LFRI). The owner of the company gave the permit to make the research in his forest area. Another important step was made by Finnish chipping machinery which came to Lithuania and is providing wood chipping services. The goal of the research is to find out either it is useful and economically well based or not. The problem which has to be taken into account is that the owner has no personal chipping machines and he will be pushed to hire those services. Another problem is that he has to worry about the transportation. There might be good possibilities to export the energy material abroad because the price of 1 tone is 40 euros in Slovakia. Also there are some unclear things about the market – it could be good to make some contracts with other companies by providing them with the wood chips. There are some problems with the wood for making chips, but this is only in this case. The idea of energies stands might be in mind for the future.
The Güssing Energy renewable energy case is easier that the raw material is provided from local wood and industrial residues. The main actors involved are the district heating company and the community which consists of households, schools, hospitals etc. The initiator of the innovation here is the EuropeanCenter for Renewable energy. The implementer of it is the district heating company. The technical university and public administrations are involved were involved in the innovation process.
The first two cases are different from the last one which is quite different and also so similar (table 2). The main problem which is in Eesti Energia's case is that they do not have the raw material and equipment for chipping. Those are the biggest problems so far. In order to make an innovation working those problems have to be solved out. The key actors are district heating companies and Eesti Energia, the government of Estonia.
Table 2. The pros and cons of the innovation cases.
Company / advantages / disadvantages / recommendationsK. Siaulio / Quite a new thing in that region and expanding the usage of biofuel in the country. / No chipping machinery, no contracts for supplying material of chipped wood to companies, no clear ways of getting material. / Carry on working with the researches; try to find the market and wood suppliers for chipping, and investing in chipping machinery.
Eesti Energia / Quite strong enterprise with good management team, well managed distribution network, willingness and opportunity for investments / No chipping machinery or transportation for chips, not a lot of raw material for chipping / Try to use more renewable energy including biomass, try to find contractors for producing chips, try to decrease using oil shale
Güssing Renewable Energy Production / Providing heat energy and electricity to house holds,kinder garden hospitals etc / - / The existing heating biomass supply should continue with sustainable manner in a good cooperation and collaboration of suppliers and and the implementers
5Conclusions
In general the word “innovation” seems so simple, but itis always like that when things look like simple they usually are not. After the intensive course our heads are full of news, the knowledge we had before coming to his course is for sure broaden. It is obvious that the innovations are not always successful. As we already heard only 25% of the innovations held are implemented. The innovation process by itself has to be called the most complicated process, as we all know that it is affected by huge amount of different actors. It is hard to define right now whether our innovation cases will be effective or not, but at least we know that the first step of innovation like the birth of idea is the most important. And the second important step is market researches.
The innovations of our cases are just in different levels at the moment. Ones are already successfully introduced to the markets and the others are still the ideas of how to create something new and demanded. Our cases show that the investments are one of the main parts of implementing the innovation to achieve cost effectiveness so that the companies’ capacity could be used in a full range. The final success depends on plenty of factors which have to be perfectly held on.
Half of our wood product innovation case studies are dealing with how well known they are on the market. Increase of marketing on national and international level will help the small and starting firms to get more customers. Together with improvements on productivity and selling innovations enterprises have possibilities to succeed in competitive markets.