Värska Laht is a major firewood producer, with an annual production volume between 8,000 and 10,000 cubic meters. They use alder, birch, ash and oak as raw materials, which they source mainly from their home country, Estonia, and some from neighboring country Latvia. Their biggest export markets are the Nordic countries and the United Kingdom, in addition to exports to Japan, the USA, and the Middle East. Firewood is sold to end-users through retail outlets.
Värska Laht’s revenue depends on various factors that affect the demand for firewood, such as mild winters and electricity prices. Currently, they are experiencing a quieter year in terms of sales, giving them more time to invest in areas such as storage and machinery. This also brought them to Finland to explore the features of the latest firewood processors and receive additional technical product training with their Estonian importer, Autra.
Värska Laht was particularly interested in the new X Firewood Factory designed for industrial-scale production of large logs.
“We appreciate the modular solution. You don’t need to buy the entire production line but can opt for components such as the saw machine, log splitter, and log conveyor between them. The vertical splitter impressed us with its performance. The automatic central greasing system simplifies maintenance tasks,” say the company’s CEO, Even Toomas, and mechanic Gerry Õis.
Värska Laht has had good experiences with the fast Palax circular saw machines of which they have four in operation: three C900 machines (two of which are the latest .2 version) and a C750.2.
“The strengths of Palax are its circular saw blade, low-cost maintenance, and good, logical mechanical design.”