Metsä Group

Metsä Group office building

Metsäliitto Cooperative, the parent company of Metsä Group, can trace its origins back to the cooperative movement which started to establish itself in Finland at around the beginning of the 20th century. Operations started with shared sales, and Metsäliitto Oy, established in 1934, continued this at first with timber exports. Metsäliitto, which became a cooperative in 1947, started its industrial operations through its own sawmill business, expanding to the chemical forest industry in the 1950s.

The Finnish forest industry grew and internationalised at a brisk pace from the 1960s, becoming one of the pillars of Finnish well-being and prosperity. Metsäliitto's operations also expanded. Important milestones for Metsäliitto included the founding of Metsä-Serla as a result of the combination merger of G. A. Serlachius Oy and Metsäliiton Teollisuus Oy in 1987; and the many growth and development steps in the pulp industry within Metsä-Botnia Oy.

During the strong growth period at the beginning of the 1990s, Metsäliitto continued to make major investments in Finland, but, like many other companies, also aimed at foreign markets. At the beginning of the 2000s, Metsäliitto was an international forest industry group with more than 25,000 employees in dozens of different countries. As a result of strong structural changes during the past few years, the Group is now a more compact entity aiming for growth in selected business operations. However, the basis for its operations still lies in the cooperative concept and acting in the best interests of Finnish forest owners.