February 7, 2022

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Family-owned James Jones & Sons, the UK’s most diverse timber processor with 27 sites across the country and sales exceeding  £330 million (US$446.5 million), has acquired nearly 60 percent of Australia’s Mayflower Enterprises Pty Ltd., the holding company of Hyne Timber and XLam. 

Dating back to 1882, Hyne Timber operates two sawmills in Tuan, Queensland, and Tumbarumba, New South Wales, producing approximately  800,000m3, or a 21 percent market share of Australia’s total market. These two mills source about 1.6 million tons of pine logs from plantations located strategically across Queensland, NSW, and Victoria. The company also established a new glulam (engineering wood) factory in Queensland, commissioned in 2020.

Ross Hampton, CEO of the Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA), commented, “Hyne is one of Australia’s oldest and most respected names in timber processing and manufacturing. It’s a family company that has literally helped build Australian homes over more than a century while underpinning economic activity and local jobs in Tumbarumba in NSW, Wodonga in Victoria, and Maryborough in QLD. More recently the business has been expanding into the new frontier of EWP (engineered wood product) design and construction.”

Originally established in New Zealand, XLam was acquired by Mayflower in 2015 when it was the only manufacturer of CLT (cross laminated timber) in the Southern Hemisphere. Since that time, the company has relocated to Wodonga, Victoria, where the first-ever CLT manufacturing plant was commissioned in 2018.

The UK imports about 80 percent of its timber, and this deal to acquire a majority stake in one of Australia’s top timber producers is occurring at the intersection of multiple value drivers for the industry.  

Usually Sweden provides almost half of the timber used in the UK, however, as of August 2021, that country has seen its lowest stock levels in two decades, opening the door for new suppliers to fill the void. 

At the same time, the Australian federal government has marked timber as a key player in reducing emissions and helping the country achieve its net zero emissions goals by 2050. As such, it has created the newly launched $300 million (US$213.8 million) Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) fund with the goal of increasing timber’s utilization in construction. 

“Hyne’s partnership with James Jones & Sons augurs well for the business with increased demand for timber and the Government’s new EWP commitment, to continue Hyne’s tradition of providing quality wood in construction in the future,” said Hampton.

Indeed, this deal, which has already secured approval from Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB), brings together partners representing a combined 320 years of sawmilling and a knowledge base that encompasses forestry, sawmilling, renewable energy, glulam, CLT, and more.

“This is an exciting day for Hyne Group with the partnership of two like minded, multi-generational family-owned timber companies opening up significant growth opportunities that will deliver benefits to our customers, suppliers, our people and the communities in which we operate,” said Jon Kleinschmidt, CEO, Hyne Group.

“Importantly, there is no overlap in the operations of the two companies because of our locations, with the Hyne Group focused on Australasia and JJSL on Europe,” he continued. “We can now concentrate on identifying and developing growth opportunities in our region and beyond, through organic growth and acquisition, and through a cross fertilization of ideas.”

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– Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.