Formerly known as Montigny Investments, NHR Investments started its business in 1997 as a small sawmill supplying support timbers to just one mine.
Today, the company describes itself as a "multi-faceted organisation" with a monthly turnover of more than 26 million Emalangeni (US$2.93m) in 2011.
NHR says that it has continuously expanded over the years to include ownership of four sawmills, with workshops and well-trained staff, producing a variety of products, as well as acquiring ownership of 6,000ha of tree plantations in Swaziland, with control of an additional 40,000ha.
The company has a fleet of 10 trucks as well as contractual obligations with 50 interlink truck rigs permanently dedicated to its business to make deliveries to its customers.
NHR says it has also maintained an aggressive ongoing expansion plan, while being committed to maintaining its sustainable forestry practices. The company believes in the advancement of its industry through education, integrity and innovation, utilising as much of the harvest as possible to ensure environmental security, as well as the highest possible prices for its raw material suppliers.
In addition to looking after the environment, NHR says it cares about its communities as well, maintaining a very strong, committed social responsibility portfolio in both Swaziland and South Africa.
One such beneficiary is Bulembu Village, an organisation in Swaziland which ‘seeks to foster the development of a new generation of emerging leaders through orphan care, education, health services and commerce’.
The Lighthouse Care Centres is another organisation in Swaziland supported by NHR which ‘provides interim foster homes for compromised children; family homes for orphans and children affected or infected with HIV and AIDS; substance abuse programmes for teens; and a life skills programme for disadvantaged youth’.
When it comes to its forestry, NHR says it adheres to FSC standards, ensuring sustainable forest management, and that it does not harvest any indigenous trees. Today, the company processes over 400,000 tons of wood per annum and adds value to 70% of that total.
The recent addition of a chipping plant to its yard has allowed it to utilise waste products from its mills, thus making use of the approximately 50% waste generated from the planking process.
This additional chipping facility will see an increased turnover of seven million Emalangeni per month (Emalangeni is on a par with the South African Rand), says the company.
NHR Investments has also been engaged in what it calls an "aggressive expansion phase" throughout the region.
In 2011, the company increased its turnover from E20,000,000 per month to E26,000,000 and in 2012, this rose to E40,000,000 per month. It currently employs about 3,400 people.
Around 45% of the company’s production is exported in the form of lumber for: industrial and fine carpentry use; pallet wood; mining timbers such as wedges, head boards, rail sleepers, pencil props and so on; dunnage; charcoal production; paper making; furniture making; and the construction industry.
Finished products made from saligna wood include laminated desk tops, doors, ceilings, skirting, flooring and decking, and bee hives.
For packaging, NHR offers pallet planks and crating material in pine and gum, while a range of poles is offered, including creosoted, CCA treated, split poles and lathes.
However, it is not just these relatively ‘conventional’ wood based products which the company makes and trades; wattle bark goes to the tannin industry.
Particleboard production The latest addition to NHR’s product range is not in the form of sawn timber, but of particleboard panels.
The link is of course obvious as the residues from the extensive sawing operations on the same site, in Nhlangano town in southern Swaziland, provide 100% of the wood raw material for the particleboard mill.
Planning for the new project began in early 2011.
"We had a need to better utilise the waste from our sawmill and investigated building a particleboard plant and decided that we could do this," said NHR’s chief executive Neil Rijkenberg.
Earthworks began in October 2011 and the machinery was delivered to the site from China in January 2012.
The line is designed to produce 150m3 of particleboard per day and started production in September 2012. By November, it had reached 75% of its designed capacity.
Neil Rijkenberg bought the whole production line in China, from Guangzhou Weiheng Machinery Co, Ltd, whom he says he found on the internet, through www.alibaba.com.
Guangzhou Weiheng supplied and installed the complete line for NHR but it was not all manufactured by that company – some components of the line were bought from other suppliers.
The discontinuous press has 10 openings and produces a 9 by 6ft board in 16mm thickness. Production from the factory goes mainly to the upholstered furniture market and boards are supplied in their full size as the factory has no cut-to-size sawing plant. The wood used in the sawmills, and therefore for particleboard production, is a mix of Eucalyptus grandis and Pinus elliotis and the panels are branded as Swazi Chip Board.
NHR Investments does not currently add value to its particleboard production and, according to Mr Rijkenberg, has no plans to do so at this time.
Urea formaldehyde resin for the production process is sourced from AMC Woodchemicals in South Africa. Mr Rijkenberg said that NHR has no plans for additional particleboard capacity on any of its sites as the current one has sufficient capacity for the available raw material.
Swaziland history The NHR mill is not in fact the first particleboard mill to be built in Swaziland, although it is currently the only one. In the late-1970s Edward Dutton (a Zimbabwean national) set up a company called Interboard, then acquired a used particleboard plant and relocated it to Wadeville in the south of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Mr Dutton then purchased a second used particleboard line and relocated it to Nhlangano in Swaziland and then a third used line, which he erected in George in the Southern Cape, about 440km from Cape Town.
Unfortunately, the Swaziland production line was apparently not a success, allegedly producing poor quality board with a high sand content.
In July 1990, Interboard was sold to Sappi Novoboard, who failed to restart the Swaziland plant and this was then cannibalised to improve the machinery at the George factory.
