Pioneer
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Today UPM Plywood operates worldwide, however, its roots are well established in Finland dating back the 19th century Finland. The founder of UPM's plywood business, Wilhelm Schauman was quite an entrepreneurial person who continuously started new businesses. He saw great potential in plywood and the mill in Jyväskylä, Finland was started in 1912. The company Schauman was not the first producer of plywood, but it brought the large scale and up-to-date manufacturing process to Finland.
FRONT-RUNNER
Soon after Schauman introduced plywood to the market, they became leaders in their business. As the demand for plywood increased markedly after World War I, production was started also in Savonlinna in 1921, and three years later a mill in Joensuu was acquired. In year 1924, over half of the Finnish plywood was produced at one of Schauman's mills. At that time, the company was the biggest plywood exporter in the world. However, competition reduced Schauman's market share to about 30 percent.
Plywood mill in Finland in the 1920's
Over the decades the company grew rapidly and in 1990s the annual production capacity of one1 million cubic metres of plywood and veneers was reached. Moreover in 1990 plywood production was started also in Russia and in 2000 in Estonia.
INNOVATIVE
Innovations have always been at the forefront in plywood production at UPM. We are the the front-runner in plywood research and development and continue to introduce innovative solutions for our customers.
One of the big innovations in plywood manufacturing in 1920's was jointing the veneers together. By jointing veneers together, the previously wasted wood raw material is used in plywood production. The picture demonstrates jointing of veneer in Savonlinna mill in late 1930s.
Since the beginning of 1960s the company increaced its processing production of plywood. WISA-Form panel was introduced, and the WISA trademark came to markets. In 1976, the share of further processed products exceeded the bulk products, and today special plywoods share of the total production is substantial.