May 12 2010
UPM's Otepää Plywood Mill celebrates its 10th anniversary on Wednesday, May 12, 2010. Otepää is the only plywood mill in Estonia and the second largest plywood maker in the Baltic Countries.
Otepää manufactures birch plywood from local raw material. In addition to standard plywood, the mill further processes top quality WISA plywood for use in transport and furniture industries and construction, among others.
90% of the mills production goes to exports, primarily to Europe. Otepää's location in the Baltic Rim allows even one-day deliveries to be made to its main markets in northern parts of Central Europe. The mill has an important role in UPM's plywood business both product-wise and logistically.
"After the mill extension in 2008 and the big investment in further processing completed last year, the annual production capacity is 50,000 cubic meters of plywood, of which more than half is further processed by coating, cutting or machining," says Kaido Kukk, Director at UPM Plywood.
Otepää plywood mill is one of the biggest employers in the Valgamaa region. The mill employs regularly 170 persons and several hundreds more indirectly in trade and services as well as in various projects and construction and maintenance tasks.
Estonian Forestex AS established the mill together with Sylvester AS and UPM on May 12, 2000, when UPM's share of the mill was one third. UPM became the sole owner of the mill in 2003.