Just a few months ago, the Brüning Group’s roundwood unit was more or less in its infancy. But before you even realise, it has already grown out of it. Despite the sometimes highly volatile market situation, we were able to put the unit on its own feet and establish it within the Brüning Group. Certainly also thanks to the high motivation and full commitment of the roundwood team. One thing is absolutely clear: any unit cannot perform without the right employees. That is why we strengthened our team with new personnel about half a year ago. With Hans Friemel, a long-standing expert in roundwood, we have significantly expanded our competences. Such investments in personnel undoubtedly set a direction and have unmistakably underlined our intentions in the roundwood sector. A perfect addition to the team and together with Friederike Blanken, who has accompanied the development of the roundwood unit from the beginning, we have already been able to move the unit forward.
In the last 6 months, we were able to acquire many new suppliers and customers, ship more than 60 containers to China, load more than 30 block trains and numerous individual wagons, handle several ships within Europe and put various truck loads on the road. At the same time, we were able to push ahead with internationalisation, which is one of our major goals. We supply international customers from international suppliers and work very closely with many companies, e.g. in Spain, in the Baltic States, in Sweden/Finland, in Poland and in Belgium. Accordingly, we have succeeded in placing the Brüning Group in the roundwood industry.
Another step was to invest in a software solution that maps the actions of the roundwood unit completely digitally. For this, we found the perfect partner in the company FelixTools from Austria. The company’s customisable software bundles all data and documents centrally in a database. This enables uniform communication and structured data exchange, which means that the processes can be optimised again and again.
Now we have to set some more stepping stones and develop the strategic set-up further. For example, we are looking for partnerships with already established companies to bundle roundwood volumes. The goal is that both sides can use the respective existing know-how and network and thus benefit from it. Because we know from our experience that trusting, long-term partnerships always pay off. We are naturally looking forward to the further development of our unit, to new projects as well as challenges, because it is likely to remain exciting in the roundwood sector.