Part luck, partly by design, Evergreen Holdings has managed to remain largely unexposed to the coronavirus’ worst impacts.
Timber’s versatility is unrivalled. In a world of plastics and polymers, wood has proven resilient to the massive transformations that took place last century and continues to serve us as well as it did our ancestors. As a material, its robustness, longevity, beauty, strength, and low environmental impact mean it will be as important tomorrow as it is to people today.
Coronavirus is a generational crisis. No other factor has impacted markets as broadly as COVID-19 has. Although epidemiologists had long warned of the potential for a respiratory illness to fundamentally undermine our way of life, the pandemic arrived unexpectedly and has changed how people interact, how businesses operate, and upturned supply chains in its wake.
As with any significant upheaval in the markets, the impacts are distributed unevenly. Certain industries, particularly those involved in digitisation and eCommerce, have seen explosive expansion. Hospitality, non-food retail and travel have borne a significant brunt. With the vaccine programme now rolling out, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
That said, life is unlikely to ever return to ‘normal’ as we knew it before the pandemic. How we behave, transact, and interact will have shifted measurably. The opportunity remains for significant innovation as the Coronavirus subsides and a new economic model emerges.
Evergreen was founded on a commitment to diversification. Trade in any commodity carries the implicit risk of swings in supply and demand, and a key feature of the company’s ability to weather storms is our founding mission to remain lightweight, nimble, and invested in several positions on the supply chain, both within timber and in the unrelated sectors of real estate and equity investment.
Timber is also fortunate in the current crisis to be situated in an asset that serves industries with low exposure to the pandemic. Packaging, paper, construction, and home improvement have all fared well, with the prices in some niches rising appreciably. Evergreen continues to grow despite the prevailing conditions, a trend we hope continues well into the future!
Evergreen Forestry is a vertically integrated, sustainably focused forestry company managing seven plantations across the KZN Midlands. Evergreen Forestry grows its own trees for pulp and sawmilling, with an increasing focus on the sawmilling value chain.
58
Permanent staff
4900ha
Hectares under management
200,000m³
