UPM sells its Jyväskylä plywood mill

UPM sells its Jyväskylä plywood mill site and premises, located in Säynätsalo, Jyväskylä in Finland, to real estate developer Redeve Oy.

The transaction was completed on April 9, and the ownership of the real estate was transferred to Redeve immediately. At the same time, businesses currently renting premises on the site, will become tenants of Redeve.

“We are delighted to find a buyer for the mill site so quickly. The site has been developed as a business district already while the plywood mill was operating. We have had successful co-operation with Redeve also earlier and we believe this good news for the further development of the site”, says Jaakko Kaijalainen, Property Manager at UPM.

Redeve has earlier bought the Myllykoski mill site and the Voikkaa business district from UPM and operates business districts on both locations. Same is being planned also for Säynätsalo.

“The location of Säynätsalo in the vicinity of downtown Jyväskylä is logistically excellent. The industrial infrastructure is in good condition enabling new businesses to establish their operations quickly. There is also a fair amount of space suitable for warehousing”, says Jari Lahtinen, CEO of Redeve Oy.

In June 2020, UPM Plywood announced its plan to permanently close Jyväskylä plywood mill, which has been producing spruce and birch plywood. The profitability of Jyväskylä plywood mill has been weak for a long time, even during periods of high-demand. Despite investments as well as savings and improvement activities, the profitability has not improved to a sustainable level, company said.

According to UPM, competition in the birch plywood market is increasing constantly. New birch plywood capacity has been built especially in Russia, where the production cost level is significantly more competitive than in Finland, UPM said in a press release.

Plywood manufacturing at UPM Jyväskylä plywood mill was ceased in 2020. Dismantling of machinery, equipment and other systems of the plywood mill continues still. According to the transaction, dismantling needs to be finalised by the end of September 2021.