Cordes takes over Rettenmeier Group

The Cordes Holding GmbH & Co. KG, Bremerhaven/DE, plans to take over troubled Rettenmeier Group, Wilburgstetten/DE. The signing of the deal was done in late September, both companies confirmed on demand. The closing - and with it the transfer of ownership – is expected to occur before the end of the year. Prior to that the transaction needs to be approved of by the German antitrust-authorities. The take-over includes all Rettenmeier operations. The company is to continue production on highest level possible and will be managed by Cordes as a separate unit. The Rettenmeier Group had run into financial difficulties after misinvestments took place at the new sawmill in Ramstein/DE.

The Cordes Group with its headquarters in Bremerhaven employs 950 people. In addition to the production of finger-jointed structural timber (KVH) and planed timber, it runs a number of other operations (see below). Founded in 1980, the Cordes family business evolved from a classic import planing mill to become one of Germany's largest providers of timber and planed products. Soon, it embarked upon producing planed wood and glue-laminated panels. Including merchandise, Cordes has a sales volume of approximately 400,000 m³/year.

The Rettenmeier sawmill group with further processing plants has six operations in Germany, Latvia and Slovakia and employs 1,200 people. The log input capacity of the German sawmills in Ramstein, Wilburgstetten and Hirschberg was at 1.5 million sm³/yr, according to latest figures. In Hirschberg, also 140,000 m³/yr of KVH are produced. The creditor banks of Rettenmeier had been looking for a buyer for some time already. In March, however, a sale of the sawmill group had officially still been off the table.

The production facilities of the Cordes Group of companies are (DE, if not indicated otherwise):

Cordes Holz, Bremerhaven, producing planed timber, glued timber, KVHHolz-Henkel, Göttingen: planed timber, pallets, wood briquettes Krages, Hamburg: planed timberLamico, Winschoten/NL: laminated timberOsmo Holz und Color, Warendorf and Münster: Planed timber, solid wood flooring, wood finishes, garden timber, moldings, laminated timberTrimex, Göttingen, distribution company