ABOUT
INDUSTRIAL SOUL
Sonae Arauco is one of the main producers of wood-based panels in the world. Its mission is to offer wood-based solutions that make people's lives better. Sonae Arauco is committed to promoting innovation, through improving the design and quality of its products for the furniture and interior design sector.
With a worldwide presence, an industrial soul and a long-term vision, Sonae Arauco is a company that is truly committed to the protection of the environment.
The development of solutions inspired by wood takes into account industrial, functional, quality and design aspects, which allows the products to be transformed into added value solutions with a multitude of application possibilities.
Together, we take your projects further.
VISION & MISSION
CREATING WOOD SOLUTIONS FOR A BETTER LIFE
Our vision is to create wood-based solutions for a better life and planet.
We believe in the value of wood in people’s lives. Our vision is to provide sustainable wood-based solutions that improve modern quality of life.
Our aim is to be the wood brand choice of clients, employees, suppliers and communities. Sonae Arauco stands for its purpose of creating wood-based solutions for a better life, a better future and a better planet.
Our mission is to offer wood-based products that improve people’s lives.
We have an industrial soul and we believe in wood-lasting partnerships.
We seek excellence and long-term profitability along with our business partners.
Our everyday dream is to take our clients’ ambitions further by offering an attractive combination of industrial expertise, functionality, sustainable quality, design and price.
HISTORY
1959 FOUNDATION OF SONAE
SONAE was founded in Maia, where it has its head office, with the purpose of producing decorative high pressure laminates.
1963
LAMINITE was launched on the market and is today known worldwide as the Sonae Indústria decorative laminate.
1971
The expansion and diversification of Sonae Indústria began in 1971, upon taking over Novopan, a particleboard factory located near Porto. At the same time, the first melamine coating line in Portugal was installed and production of components for the furniture and interior design industries began.
1989
Sonae Indústria was the leader in the particleboard sector in Portugal and began its process of internationalisation and expansion through the acquisition of a particleboard company in the United Kingdom.
1993 - PURCHASE OF TAFISA
Purchase of Tafisa in Canada, which is today one of the biggest particleboard factories in the world, plus new factories in Brazil (for particleboard and MDF panels) and in South Africa (particleboard).
1998
Purchase of Glunz (Germany) and Isoroy (France).
2001
Purchase of Sappi Novobord in South Africa. At the same time, Sonae Indústria began an ambitious diversification programme of its product range and modernisation of its technical assets, making major investments in France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, Brazil and Canada.
2005-2006
Partnership with Tarkett (Germany) – 2005. Purchase of Hornitex (Germany) and Darbo (France) – 2006.
2011
Launch of the new Innovus brand – Sonae Indústria´s decorative products.
2016-2019
- 2016, Strategic partnership with Arauco.
- 2019, Launch of the new Innovus collection
OUR SHAREHOLDERS
THE HISTORY OF TWO COMPANIES INSPIRING A NEW FUTURE HISTORY
Sonae Arauco is the result of a joint venture between two leading world companies in the wood sector: Sonae Indústria and Arauco.
This partnership was established in order to create solutions inspired by wood for a sustainable world and encompasses all the wood-based panelling, chemical and impregnated paper plants in Europe and South Africa.
SONAE INDÚSTRIA
Founded in 1959, Sonae Indústria is a multinational company that produces wood-based panels. Rooted in the north of Portugal, it has sprouted to the world, developing products for the furniture, building and decoration industries that improve people’s standard of living.
Using wood as the raw material for everything it produces, from the very start Sonae Indústria has made a point of using the natural resources in a sustainable way and to keep the environmental impact of its activities to a minimum.
In 2016, it established a partnership with Arauco, one of the largest forestry product suppliers in the world, giving rise to Sonae Arauco.
In addition to this strategic alliance, Sonae Indústria today has the largest particleboard industrial plant in North America, as well as plants for high-pressure laminates and components for furniture in Portugal and Germany.
ARAUCO
Founded in 1970 with the mission of producing and managing renewable forestry resources, Arauco is today an international benchmark in terms of forestry and industrial plants, efficiency, production standards, innovation, environmental responsibility and social commitment.
Originating in Chile, Arauco’s reach has now spread to over 75 countries. Over almost 50 years, it has increased and enhanced its forestry plantations through permanent research and the application of best global practices in relation to sustainability and conservation of trees, soils and biodiversity of its forested areas for future generations.
INNOVATION
We take wood innovation further to be a leading international company in the sector.
PROUD INDUSTRIAL SOUL
With a long-term business vision and a solid growth ambition, we are a company born with strong roots to last through generations. We have the courage to take risks and the financial strength to embrace them as new challenges, knowing that our knowledge and high quality standards will always take us further.
- Wood-based Expertise, - Long-term Business Vision, - Solid Growth Ambition
WOOD-BASED LIFE IMPROVEMENT
We take wood innovation further to be a leading international company in the sector. We create sustainable and renewable wood-based solutions for a better life and planet, moving beyond products to offer fit for purpose solutions that improve people’s lives.
- Sustainable And Renewable, - Innovative, - Fit For Purpose
WOOD-LASTING ALLIANCES
We believe in teamwork, safe workplaces, cooperation and long-lasting partnerships. Ethics and transparency are rooted in our business integrity and commitment with our stakeholders. Respecting the environment and the communities around us is part of our nature and at the centre of our priorities.
- Ethics And Transparency, - Long-lasting Partnerships, - Safety And Good Citizenship
PEOPLE
OUR PEOPLE TAKE SONAE ARAUCO FURTHER
"At Sonae Arauco, we believe that it is the people that make our future better every day" Michelle Quintão — Marketing Director
We support their personal and professional development so that they can achieve their goals, through continuous training and encouraging active participation in training programmes.
We work hard to attract exceptional people and professionals and to keep them with us, and we hope they will all contribute to the success of our company with their know-how and dedication.
For us, each employee is unique and we believe that the wealth of all those who make up Sonae Arauco springs from the individuality of each one.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
Health and safety at work
The safety and well-being of our employees is our number one priority.
In this area, all Sonae Arauco activities are subject to a preventive approach in relation to the management of occupational health, safety and hygiene, which includes:
- Risk reduction and control to prevent incidents, accidents, injuries and occupational diseases
- Safety in the factories and workplaces in general, including all equipment
- Employee training and commitment to ongoing improvement in all these processes.
EDUCATION
Education and the community
We undertake to practise, encourage and promote social responsibility through the adoption of ethical behaviour, improving the standard of living of our employees and their families, as well as the communities where we are.
Given that our business is directly connected to the use of natural resources, we take our responsibility extremely seriously in relation to raising environmental awareness and conserving the environment.
SUSTAINABILITY
TAKING WOOD (PEOPLE AND THE PLANET) FURTHER
Sonae Arauco is one of the world's leading producers of wood solutions, a natural, renewable and recyclable raw material.
Since its inception, the company has focussed on developing sustainable wood solutions with high added value for construction, furniture and interior design, from the most standard to the most demanding from a technical point of view.
From Innovus decorative products to Core & Technical products and AGEPAN® SYSTEM solutions for construction, Sonae Arauco holds a versatile and sustainable portfolio, with a wide range of applications.
THE VALUE OF WOOD
Sonae Arauco is convinced of the value of wood in people's lives. Its use contributes to a better life, future and planet, as stated on the company’s vision. Sustainability is therefore integrated across the board into Sonae Arauco's business strategy.
SUSTAINABLE ORIGINS
The company focuses on a value chain that begins with the use of wood from responsible sources, certified forests or controlled sources, incorporating by-products from the wood industry, and using a circular approach, ending the cycle by reuse and recycling waste from the wood used to produce our wood-based particleboard panels.
CIRCULAR BIOECONOMY
Sonae Arauco's activity thus thrives around a circular bioeconomy model that fully respects the principle of using wood in cascade. In cases where it is no longer possible to reintegrate wood into the process, nothing is lost and the waste is used as a source of energy for industrial units.
