In 1973, the family created Maderas Garnica, opening the first plywood factory in that village.

At that time, the market began to show strong demand for this type of wood based product to make fruit boxes, mostly for export, and later on for other applications as well.

Over time, the company incorporated new equipment and improved the cultivation and selection of the poplar. It also improved the preparation of the wood for its transformation into plywood, which it produces in a variety of qualities and thicknesses according to the final application of the product.

In the 1980’s Garnica Group started exporting its plywood products to several countries. The high quality of the plywood was very well received by several European industrial companies which used it for the production of caravans, boats and furniture, among other applications.

At this time, the group experienced its most important growth, setting up new Spanish factories in Fuenmayor (La Rioja) in 1995 and Valencia de Don Juan (León) in 1996.

Garnica chose these locations because of their excellent natural conditions for poplar cultivation, which is the main raw material.

In October 2006 the venture capital group Qualitas Equity Partners invested in the company. The entry of this new partner meant strong financial support to both the growth and professional management of the group.

As a result of this strategy, the production process was improved, extending the range with new formats and types of boards as demanded by customers and markets, with the company investing up to €30m to expand the factory in Baños de Río Tobía, and creating a new plant in the South of France, at Samazan.

Poplar – the basis for Garnica
Poplar is certainly the fastest growing native species and, therefore, the greatest fixer of environmental CO2. One hectare usually supports about 300 poplar trees and through the process of photosynthesis, they can fix about 10 tons of CO2 per year, per hectare.

The wood from the poplar tree has very similar properties to that of the soft tropical species Okoumé, ilomba and fromager. It is actually a plantation crop, not natural forest, and typically stands on the banks of rivers, or on ground traditionally used for agricultural crops (of which the EU is in surplus).

Agricultural crops use large amounts of fertilisers and pesticides, while poplar does not have this requirement.

The environmental balance is strongly in favour of poplar against tropical timber, as these species come from tropical rainforests, usually exploited without sustainable management. In many cases this breaks the existing delicate environmental balance in tropical forests. In addition, the energy balance necessary to produce tropical plywood is very unfavourable. There is also a lot of waste in the cutting and production process for tropical plywood (imposed by the rainforest), and it uses much more energy to operate and transport from the tropics to the final consumption destinations in Europe.

Garnica Group encourages the cultivation of poplar, especially in the valleys of the Ebro, Duero and Garonne rivers. For this purpose the company constantly updates its farming methods with all available upgrades, establishes plantations, spreads knowledge and promotes best practice among producers.

The company also promotes poplar in society, leading partnerships to achieve this objective – for example Pro Populus, the European association for the promotion of poplar.

Garnica Group currently processes about 350,000m3 of poplar, which makes it the largest purchaser of this type of wood in Europe. Of this, 83% comes from Spain, with the remaining 17% being imported from France.

The philosophy of the company is to fully respect the environment.

The production process
We can consider that Garnica’s production process begins with the cultivation of poplar. After a growing period of about 15 years, the trees are felled. The logs are classified according to their size and quality and sent to the different factories. After felling, the land is cleaned and the remaining byproducts are 100% recovered to be used in other kinds of board, or as biomass.

Once in the factory, the logs are debarked and peeled to be transformed into veneer. This veneer is then classified according to moisture and quality. The high moisture content of poplar, and its docility, allows this process to be carried out directly, without any prior treatment.

A sophisticated humidity control in this process allows for the classification of the wood according to its moisture content and thus enables the drying of the veneers in homogeneous batches. Artificial vision systems and electronic centring devices are essential to optimise the use of each log.

After the drying process, by means of state-of-the art technology, sheets are automatically classified according to their quality and humidity. After that, veneers are glued, laid and pressed to obtain the raw plywood.

The plywood panel usually consists of an odd number of veneers, alternating the fibre direction between one sheet and the next. This confers on the plywood the properties of lightness and strength which makes it very useful for many applications.

The press line combines technology with the expertise of a team who oversee the process to repair the panel when it shows small defects.

After pressing, the plywood is sanded and cut to its final dimension. After that, boards are marked and packaged for transport to their final destination.

Leading producer
Garnica Plywood is currently the foremost European producer of plywood based on poplar. The company exports 80% of its production to 22 countries all over the world.

After many years of steady growth, Garnica Group today has five production facilities, with over 70,000m2 of built premises where the specialised production lines are located. The group employs more than 450 workers, and expected a consolidated turnover of €90m for the whole of 2010.

Major investment
Garnica Plywood has invested over €30m since 2008, both to expand the factory in Baños de Río Tobía (€12m) and to set up a new plant in Samazan (€18m), which is a village in the South of France in an area with a large resource of poplar.

The expansion of the factory in Baños began in June 2009 to give an annual production capacity of 60,000m3. It has been equipped with the latest machinery to produce large-format plywood panels and has created 50 new jobs.

The new French plant, Garnica Plywood France, which was officially inaugurated on November 22nd 2010, has created 30 new jobs and offers a production capacity of over 50,000m3 of dried veneer.

This investment has been financed mostly by the company’s own resources and has also received official grants of €1,180,000 from different French public entities, which amounts to 6.5% of the total investment.

The new plant fits within the multi-plant system of the Garnica Group and will contribute towards increasing not only the productivity, but also the production and the product range of Garnica, whilst also promoting the use of poplar wood.

Garnica Plywood France covers an area of 9,000m2 on a site of 80,000m2. It is located in the Garonne region, one of the areas in southern France with the best poplar plantations, which is of course the main raw material for Garnica Plywood.

The plant is equipped with state-of-the art machinery and productivity in terms of peeling and drying lines, which provide the highest quality, and it will process 100,000m3 of poplar per year.

Garnica’s poplar plywood is renowned for its excellent physical-mechanical properties and its extreme lightness.

Garnica Plywood Group says it offers the widest product range in the market and is present in many sectors, from furniture to caravans, yachts and bigger vessels, construction, interior decoration and toys.

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend

Bookmark this

---