French sawmills change hands as consolidation quietly accelerates

A series of sawmill acquisitions across France is taking place against the backdrop of a deeper restructuring of the forest sector, where cooperatives have become fewer, larger and increasingly integrated over the past two decades. In the 1990s, around 50 forest cooperatives operated across the country. Today, only about a dozen remain, following successive mergers between neighbouring entities. This consolidation has not reduced their role—on the contrary, it has significantly increased their operational scale, geographic coverage and influence over wood mobilisation. Cooperatives now manage around 2.2 million hectares, represent approximately 120,000 forest owners and mobilise some ...