Söderhamn Eriksson is now American

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USNR/IHB/
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USNR announced that it has acquired Söderhamn Eriksson and all of its subsidiaries from Cellwoodgruppen AB. USNR is the world’s largest supplier of equipment and technologies for the sawmill industry, and the addition of Söderhamn Eriksson further cements USNR’s leadership position, as the company says in a press release.

George Van Hoomissen, president and CEO of USNR, said he was very interested in the opportunity to acquire Söderhamn Eriksson because he felt that the company’s strong market position in Europe would complement USNR’s strong position in North America, and that both companies’ positions would be strengthened as a result of the combination in South America, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, and Asia.

“We believe that Söderhamn Eriksson’s extensive sales, distribution, and service networks in Europe will help USNR to more broadly introduce and support its products in Europe,” said Chris Blomquist, vice-president of sales for USNR. “Lack of local support infrastructure can be a challenge, but now the combined organization has an extensive OEM support network spanning 15 time zones, three continents, 10 countries and at least nine languages. No other company in our industry even comes close to matching this level of aftermarket support.”

Within the Söderhamn Eriksson organization, this acquisition is also viewed as tremendously positive and transformative. 

“We have products that are very well-suited to the North American style of sawmilling, and we are optimistic that with the support of USNR, we will be able to successfully introduce these products into the United States and Canada,” said Henrik Lefvert, managing director for Söderhamn Eriksson.

Lefvert will continue on as managing director of Söderhamn Eriksson, and no interruptions to on-going projects, services, or other operations are expected as a result of this acquisition.

“We are also very excited to be able to creatively package solutions that combine products from Söderhamn Eriksson with those from USNR,” added Lars Lindvall, international sales manager for Söderhamn Eriksson. “We have of course been able to collaborate with USNR in the past, and have done so on a number of occasions, but we are now in a position to provide fully integrated, end-to-end solutions anywhere in the world.”

Blomquist said that the combination of USNR and Söderhamn Eriksson offers customers far more options when planning a project. “By combining our product lines and our service and support operations, customers will be able to design the solution that best meets their needs.”

Söderhamn Eriksson has a long history, dating back to the 1860s. The Stenberg family acquired A.K. Eriksson in 1937, and then in the early 1990s acquired what had been Söderhamns Verkstäder and later Kockums Industries. A few years later, these organizations were combined to form Söderhamn Eriksson. Today, the company operates five facilities in Sweden in addition to maintaining local-language sales, service, and aftermarket support centres in the U.K., Canada, Norway, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Poland, and Germany. The company is known around the world for its high-quality log lines and edger systems, and for the Cambio debarker, which was invented by Söderhamns Verkstäder in the 1950s and subsequently sold many thousands of machines around the world. 

USNR operates seven facilities in the Canada and the U.S., including three large manufacturing plants, plus a sales and service centre in Russia. USNR is best known around the world for providing end-to-end solutions for sawmills and planer mills, including log lines, curve sawing gangs, edger lines, trim-sort-stack systems, dry kilns, and the optimization and control technologies that maximize the output and performance of that equipment. USNR is also known for its Coe brand products used in the manufacture of plywood and other panel products.

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