The opening of the Gámiz plant, attended by Basque Government Minister Amaia Barredo
  
Grupo Gámiz has announced the launch of a new industrial phase at its plant in Santa Cruz de Campezo (Álava), through which the company is resuming on-site sawmilling of hardwoods—beech, oak, and ash—as the first stage of wood processing. With this expansion, the company has become the largest hardwood sawmiller in the Basque Country.

The company, founded in 1942 as a sawmill, has since evolved from timber harvesting to innovation in laminated wood, structural oak, and acetylated wood, with products now distributed throughout much of Europe. According to the company itself, the move announced now represents a deliberate return to that first link in the chain: sawing at the source, in Álava, and doing so on a large scale.

The initiative is part of the comprehensive renovation project for the sawmill that the company launched to strengthen its supply independence and expand its secondary processing operations. The project will allow the company to replace outdated machinery with new, more technologically advanced equipment, which will help reduce production downtime, lower maintenance costs, and improve efficiency. To this end, the company has made a significant investment of 3.1 million euros, with support from the Basque Government, which has contributed 40% of the total.

Maderas Gámiz employs 86 people, 26 of whom are women, and operates a strategic primary wood processing facility in Santa Cruz de Campezo—a town of about 1,000 residents located in the Montaña Alavesa region—which is linked to the industrial use of timber and the economic development of the region.

From Primary to Secondary Processing
The Grupo Gámiz sawmill has the capacity to process 20,000 m³ per year of European oak, American red oak, beech, ash, and other hardwoods. From there, the company carries out its secondary processing under its own brands of laminated profiles (PERFIGAM), laminated panels (ALIGAM), and laminated beams (VIGAM)—a segment in which up to 95% of production is exported outside of Spain. Grupo Gámiz is also the exclusive distributor in Spain of ACCOYA® acetylated wood.

The company also participates in two European R&D projects focused on the recovery, promotion, and technical development of oak (Life+REB) and beech (Life Haya Hardwood For The Home) wood—lines of work that reinforce Grupo Gámiz’s role as a leader in the value creation of local hardwood.

Grupo Gámiz is a member of Club Madera, the community that brings together the entire value chain of wood construction—from the forest to the building. This new phase reinforces precisely that approach: supplying locally sourced wood with full traceability to the industrialized construction projects now in demand by architects, construction companies, and developers across Europe.
  
Source: clubmadera.com