The White River Sawmill senior management team: Top left to right: Willie Stander (CEO), Rico Venter (group engineer) and Carel Jacobsz (sawmill manager White River). Middle left to right: Metsing Maloka (sawmill manager Densa), Shenè Roberts (sales manager) and Karlien Maritz (HR manager). Front: Douw Steyn (CFO). Absent: Kobus Hugo (log procurement manager).
By Joy Crane
How does a sawmill without its own log supply survive Covid, a collapsing structural timber market and soaring input costs driven by load-shedding? For the White River Saw Mills (WRSM) Group, the answer lies in its relationships with people.
The group comprises White River and Densa Sawmills in Mpumalanga, which produce 88,000 cubic metres of kiln-dried, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified structural and appearance-grade lumber each year. They serve their local market, with a small volume exported to Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
White River Sawmill was founded in 1989 and is located off Sabie Road on the outskirts of the small rural town of White River. Densa Sawmill was acquired in 1993 and is nearer to Mbombela, the province’s economic hub.
Independent mills
Unlike vertically integrated groups, White River and Densa are independent mills without their own plantations. They rely on short-term, five-year contracts with their main supplier, the state-owned Safcol, which accounts for over 90% of their log intake and requires multi-million-rand deposits to secure.
CEO Willie Stander says this limits WRSM’s ability to achieve volume-driven growth. “We can’t risk making long-term investments in new technologies without securing a longer-term contract of at least ten years, which will let us build cash reserves and see a return before the deposit and supply terms come up again”.
The mills are designed to produce 88,000 cubic metres of kiln-dried structural wood products annually. Without the option of volume-driven growth, they are yield-driven instead. However, both mills still run on older Linck and Mohringer framesaw technology and lack the modern log and board scanners and semi-automated materials handling found at better-capitalised competitors.
“The only way for us to lift productivity is to extract more value from each log by salvaging high-value structural and clear appearance-grade timber. To do this, we need to rely on what we have, and our biggest asset is our people. They are our edge”, Willie explains.
People are our edge
White River employs 215 people and Densa 340, with turnover low enough that 30-year service awards are common. It was business as usual, Willie says, until 2020. The Covid lockdown was potentially devastating for the group and its employees.
Read the full story here – https://www.woodbizafrica.co.za/july-2026-issue-61/#july-2026-issue-61/10/