Modernization and expansion of production of solid wood walls

Ekoart has been operating for 10 years and currently employs over 15 people. The main activity of the company is the production and installation of high quality, prefabricated, wooden houses. We achieve differentiation in the market primarily by using exclusively eco-friendly materials, a great emphasis on facility design and high technical sophistication.

 

We want to upgrade and expand our existing business while keeping the erection of houses at a similar level as we do now and to increase the production of solid dowel-laminated timber walls and offer them on the external market as well. In the next 5-year period, we plan to modernize the already existing production of solid dowel-laminated timber walls without the use of adhesives and to set up the most modern production of this kind in Europe. We already have our own patent and ETA certificate for this activity.

 

The current production capacity that directly employs 5 people is the production of 500 m3 of dowel-laminated timber walls / year. We plan to increase production to 5,000 m3 of walls / year in 5 years and employ over 20 people in production and 10 in overhead services.

We want to grow step by step with what we want to achieve;

– sustainability of finances

– Establish personnel structures accordingly

– stable quality of our products

 

We intend to invest over € 2 million in the equipment in the mentioned period. We plan to invest € 1 million in premises and infrastructure.

 

The project aims to contribute to the establishment of vertical integration of local wood processing. By making massive dowel-laminated timber walls, with full vertical integration, we can increase the value by a factor of 10 (basic spruce log = 80 € / m3; massive pavement wall = 800 € / m3)

 

The ecological aspect is also important to us. The investment will be:

– ensure greater processing of wood in the local environment, thereby reducing the environmental burden of exporting logs and imports of finished products from abroad;

– allow the utilization of wood residues that will be useful for briquette heating by wood briquetting

– Due to high automation and optimization, it will enable energy efficient production

 

Business are people, so it is important for us to support and educate young prospective staff through the project and to enable them to pursue a career in a high-tech company. We will primarily recruit staff for:

– development of final solutions (further development of massive wooden walls)

– construction

– automation & robotization of production processes.

 

We place a lot of emphasis on development activities, so we plan to increase the number of engineers from 2 to 5 and apply at least 5 new patents in the next 5 years. We are currently preparing two applications for new wall-shifting solutions in connection with shading.

In 10 years, the company has grown from € 70,000 in sales in 2007 to € 1.5 million in 2017. In the interim, we have gained recognition in the prefabricated houses market and developed and set up our own production of semi-finished massive dowel-laminated timber wall products. We are ahead of a new development cycle that aims to balance the house assembly business with the production of massive dowel-laminated timber walls for our own needs.

In total, we plan to invest over € 3 million in equipment and premises investments over the next 5-year period. We are looking for a partner who would invest between € 0.5 million and € 1.0 million and become a co-owner and strategic partner.

• Investment in CNC Hardware & Robotics.

04_IK_GLV_Ekoart_presentation

The investment opportunity contributes to the achievement of objective no. 5 Slovenia’s 2030 Development Strategies for Inclusive Growth regionally sustainable development, as it encourages the strengthening of economic activity in rural areas and in the field by promoting sustainable and inclusive economic development. In addition, it contributes to the achievement of objective no. 8 by promoting innovation, the use of design and information and communication technologies to develop new business models and products for the efficient use of raw materials, energy, and adaptation to climate change. The investment opportunity is expected to directly generate up to 5 green jobs in 5 years.

Wood working and processing.

Modern technology, equipment or infrastructure,

development of human resources (eg. training of specialist staff, etc.),

development of developmental and technical-technological solutions in the priority area of ​​application of the smart specialization “Smart Buildings and Home with a Wood Chain” (smart houses, furniture, etc.),

a solution to improve the relevant characteristics of native wood species,

development of solutions that will enable environmentally friendly and safe timber construction,

solutions in the field of innovative and efficient side streams and waste wood processing into higher value-added products,

sustainable development solution, circular economy, new business models.