Kastamonu Entegre is one of the world’s leading wood-based panels manufacturers and has branched out considerably since its first plant was opened in Turkey in 1971.
The company has seen a rapid expansion in recent decades as part of its mission to become a significant global player in the industry – an aim it is achieving since it is now generally regarded as in the top five woodbased panels producers in the world.
It has production facilities in six locations in Turkey: Kastamonu, Gebze, Balıkesir, Samsun, Tarsus and Adana. The company also operates production sites in Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russia and Italy. The company has a subsidiary in the US, where it carries out wood chip supply and logistics processes.
Part of its expansion has been in Italy. The company put down roots in the country when it decided to purchase Italy’s Gruppo Trombini in 2017. At that time, the business had been the third largest particleboard maker in Italy, running several facilities. These included the plant in Frossasco, with a capacity to produce 320,000m3 per year (currently closed), and the factory in Pomposa, fitted with an annual production capacity of some 450,000m3.
Prior to Kastamonu’s takeover, the facilities had been closed due to the bankruptcy of the former owner.
The Falco factory in Pomposa, founded in 1962, has been a historically important hub of PB production and regarded a modern production unit in Italy in the production of raw and laminated panels for the furniture industry.
In 2007 Gruppo Trombini undertook an extensive modernisation of the plant, costing more than €80m. It uses 100% recycled wood for PB production and boasted a 15% market share in that country.
In 2018, Kastamonu re-opened the factory and targeted a 20% PB market share in Italy.
The latest update involves the opening of a new production line at the site, with an additional aim to launch export sales in 2025.
The project is bringing the producer’s total investments in the Italian market to some €250m, and the company is aiming to carry out further projects at the plant.
Haluk Yıldız, Kastamonu’s chief executive, told Turkish business news magazine Patronlar Dünyası recently that the Italian subsidiary will start exporting its output this year.
“We have made total investments to the amount of €210m including purchasing and installing additional machines. We made another investment of €40m on top of that,” he was quoted. “Our investments are not over, they continue.”
In the meantime, the Turkish company is investing to ramp up the Italian factory’s use of renewable energy in its manufacturing activities. As part of these efforts, in March 2025, Kastamonu Entegre installed solar panels on the plant’s roof. The photovoltaic installation is fitted with a capacity of 3MW.
“We will also set up [a solar capacity of] 4.5MW on the land. We will produce 15% of the energy we consume on our own. We will complete these two investments in 2025. We have an investment plan for a glue facility of around €20m in the future,” Mr Yıldız told Patronlar Dünyası.
The investment in Pomposa is part of Kastamonu Entegre’s efforts to boost its international presence, as the business sells its products to some 100 countries across the world.
Kastamonu also has plans for the facility in Frossasco, close to Turin. It has remained closed, but production activities are believed to be on the horizon.
The company outlined its expansion plans in a 2022 article in WBPI and in the interview with Patronlar Dünyası, Mr Yildiz further highlighted Italy as a strategic part of its European expansion, describing the importance of the country as a centre of excellence in furniture and design.
“Being here provides us with an opportunity to follow fashion and trends in the sector more closely,” he said in the report.
“Our presence in Italy also offers the opportunity to work with furniture manufacturers. On the other hand, the fact that Italy is the only country in Europe that produces [particleboard that is] 100% recycled and the experience provided by the sustainability system here are very valuable to us.”
A key objective for Kastamonu this year is to launch exports of its output manufactured at the Pomposa facility, as to date the production has been sold only on the domestic Italian market.
In the meantime, alongside investments in making the Italian offshoot increasingly reliant on renewable energy sources, Kastamonu Entegre is also making efforts to ensure its product portfolio is largely based on bio-based raw materials.
In March 2025, the business announced that it has released Turkey’s first particleboard to be made entirely of environmentally-friendly adhesives.
PureBoard is a formaldehyde-free composition to ensure low emission levels, improve indoor air quality, and promote healthier living spaces. Kastamonu is hopeful the move will lead to an even more sustainable product trend in the wood-based panels industry. In 2025, the manufacturer aims to add the new product to the ranges of its foreign subsidiaries.
“This year, we will expand our 100% recycled production pattern from Italy to our plants in Gebze, Balıkesir, and Romania. With the recycling plants we established in Gebze and Balıkesir, we aim to reintegrate 300,000 tons of wood waste into the economy every year,” he told Patronlar Dünyası. “With a total investment of TRY160m [or about €3.9m], we are committed to increasing the use of recycled materials in particleboard production, promoting sustainable raw material usage, and leading the transition to a circular production model.”
Kastamonu Entegre says that it sources as much as 67% of its energy consumption directly from renewable resources. The company aims to establish solar power plants in six manufacturing facilities by 2030.
With an aggregate manufacturing capacity of some 7.8 million m3, Kastamonu Entegre says that it is Europe’s third largest producer of wood-based panels. The business is operated by a total workforce of around 7,000 employees and exports its output to some 100 countries across the world, according to figures from the group.
