Meeting our certified companies – APP Timber

27 May 2021 Certification on the ground

In our interview series ‘Meeting our certified companies’, we give the word to the people on the ground to hear their views and opinions on certification and sustainability and see the impact of PEFC certification through their eyes.

Our latest interview partner is Michael Hermens, Group Managing Director at APP Timber, who shares his thoughts about sustainability and global cooperation.

Can you give us a brief introduction to your company and its position in the market?

Our core business at APP Timber is the supply of imported timber, veneers, surface materials and panel products for the Asian timber industry.

With our Headquarters in Malaysia, APP Timber runs marketing operations and distribution centres throughout Asia. Our sales teams come with in-depth knowledge about timber and related products and provide expertise in selecting raw materials for our buyers.

In addition, APP Timber exports Asian made timber products. Under our guidance, we bring buyers and suppliers together. Years of close cooperation of APP Timber with many high-quality Asian manufacturers allow for sourcing, manufacturing, and shipping products corresponding to overseas buyers’ requirements.

In the context of timber and forest-based product sourcing, what is your company’s goal?

We are PEFC and FSC certified and a PEFC international stakeholder member. To our suppliers and buyers, we act as partners, and we strive to be known as “Asia’s most innovative company providing imported timber solutions”.

How did you hear about PEFC?

We heard about PEFC in the early 2000s. Those days, we were sourcing large volumes of softwood timber from Finland, and most of our suppliers were PEFC certified. PEFC invited APP Timber to become a member, and we proudly accepted this, becoming PEFC’s first Asian-based stakeholder member.

What led you to choose PEFC certification?

The reason we choose PEFC is three-fold: firstly, there has been a growing demand for certified wood products, especially after the introduction of the EU Timber Regulation in 2013. Secondly, PEFC is a “bottom-up” organization that works closely with national governments to help them to become sustainable. Thirdly, PEFC leads in certified forests and timber worldwide.

Consequently, we obtained PEFC chain of custody certification in 2016.

How has PEFC certification benefitted your company and helped achieve your goals?

APP Timber is the only company in Southeast Asia that is both a PEFC international stakeholder member and has PEFC chain of custody certification for wood products sold from our Malaysian warehouse.

Being a stakeholder member means that we have the responsibility – together with all other members – to safeguard PEFC’s mission to protect the forests by promoting sustainable forest management through certification. 

The annual PEFC meetings allow us to connect with many other members worldwide and share our ideas on spreading the word about PEFC in Southeast Asia. The result is an increased demand for PEFC-certified wooden products, especially from Southeast Asian manufacturers that produce products to be sold in Europe.