Nana Eurooppa exports Koskisen timber to Japan
Tommi Sneck, Director of Koskisen Timber Industry, and Nana Eurooppa’s Managing Director, Hideki “Rocky” Ogawa, first bumped into each other in 2002.
- For occupational reasons I was living in Kotka at the time, and Rocky in Hamina. A few years later I moved to Tallinn, and guess who I met at the local golf course – Rocky. Once I transferred from Stora Enso to Koskisen, Rocky and Nana Eurooppa became our customers, Tommi recounts.
Raising horses and floating logs
According to Rocky, the company Nana was established by his father in Japan in 1945.
- My father raised and bred horses for the Japanese army, and after the war all he had left was his horses. He started to procure wood, using his horses, and floated large logs down the river to the Tamba area, which is a major raw-material distribution centre. From Tamba the wood was delivered to Kyoto, Japan’s former capital, for housing construction, Rocky says.
The company was successful and expanded, in addition to sawmilling, to the manufacture of components for prefabricated houses. Geographically the company extended its operations to Osaka.
The 1980s was a golden era for construction in Japan. Prefabricated housing construction boomed and, in addition to wood, steel was also used. In 1985 the Japanese yen strengthened and exports exploded. At the same time, the government encouraged companies to increase foreign imports.
- We established export subsidiaries first in the US, then to Canada and finally in Europe. Once the US forbid foreign companies from sawmilling large American pine logs, we established a subsidiary in Canada. We wanted a foothold in Europe, because here it is easy to buy exactly the kind of wood required, Rocky explains.
Sawmill in Mikkeli, processing plant to Hamina
In 1994 Rocky moved to Finland and started to plan the commissioning of a joint sawmill in Mikkeli with the Japanese Misawa, a prefabricated house manufacturer. In 1997 the sawmill was up and running. A little later Nana Eurooppa commissioned a production facility of its own in Hamina. There the company planes, glues and fingerjoints Finnish sawn timber, after which the products are shipped by sea in containers to Kameoke, near Kyoto. In Kameoke, Rocky’s brother Yoshihisa Ogawa runs a production facility, where the products are further-processed into components for the housing industry, mainly for Misawa’s prefabricated house factories.
Nana Group purchases dimensional sawn timber from Koskisen, for example sawn spruce with dimensions of 40 x 225 mm and the exact length of 4800 mm. The length of the sawn timber is strictly defined, which differs from the European purchasers. Small volumes of sawn timber are also purchased from Koskisen’s Sheksna sawmill in Russia. According to Tommi, co-operation with Nana Eurooppa is a joy.
- Rocky and his brother always have time to get together with us in activities other than just business. We play golf together every year, for example. Co-operating with people is always nicer if you know them a bit better on a personal level.
