58 | Feature: Elka
SUMMARY
■ Elka Holzwerke was founded in 1906 as Ludwig Kuntz, Dampfsägewerk und Holzhandlung
■ It has a sawmill, a particleboard and esb factory and a three-layer board factory at its Morbach site
■ The sawmill has a production capacity of about 150,000m3
■ Elka Strong Board is a form of particleboard
GREEN AND CLEAN FROM TREE TO END-PRODUCT
Elka Holzwerke may not be a very well-known name in the global timber industry, but it is a growing, family-owned German company with a different approach and a strong commitment to sustainability. Mike Botting interviewed its managing director to bring this report
We are all familiar with the ‘big names’ in the global panel industry, but there is a small, family-owned and run business in the centre of the European continent, which does things differently and, in some ways, better. Elka Holzwerke was founded in 1906 by Ludwig Kuntz as ‘Ludwig Kuntz, Dampfsägewerk und Holzhandlung’ in Kirn, Germany. This name in English translated as ‘steam sawmill and lumber shop’. In 1908 the company bought a site in Morbach, because of its proximity to forests of spruce and Douglas fir. Today, the company goes by the less complicated name of Elka Holzwerke (Woodworks). However, it has come a long way in the
Above: Aerial view of the entire company TTJ | March/April 2025 |
www.ttjonline.com
last 119 years – through innovation and investment in its lumber and speciality panels operations – and is currently investing a lot of money in its panel production facilities. “The fourth generation of the Kuntz family now runs the business, which is unique in having three different factories on the one site, here in Morbach,” said Larissa Kuntz, managing director of Elka since 2020. “We have the sawmill, the particleboard and esb factory and the three-ply CLT [cross- laminated timber] factory. In fact, Elka is the only German-owned particleboard factory left in this country.”
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