Honorary Doctor of Technology and a nationally renowned entrepreneur Markku Koskenniemi is the owner of Tulenrako Oy in Southern Finland’s Tampere. The company produces some 500-700 m3 of firewood yearly, depending on forest management levels. The wood is sourced from forests which are owned by Koskenniemi.
“The best birch logs are sold to forestry companies. The rest, the smaller logs, are used to make firewood. In addition to birch, we produce firewood from spruce, which is in extremely high demand at the moment. Spruce is often used in saunas and fireplaces with hatches. Spruce is great to use as it emits so much heat that it cleans the log nest as it burns.” says Koskenniemi.
Koskenniemi uses the Japa®320 firewood machine. It features a changeable knife which cuts the logs in four or six pieces. The particular model also features a hydraulic chainsaw and an electric motor. Unfortunately, the Japa®320 model is no longer a part of Japa’s product range, however, the Japa®385 is very similar. The Japa®385 has been designed for professional and demanding recreational use. It is available with three different accessory kits and with 6T or 8T splitting power. The accessory kits make the Japa®385 a very versatile machine suitable to an array of different customer profiles. It has been developed in close co-operation with Japa® clients and Koskenniemi has been a part of the development team. Koskenniemi has been using Japa® machines for some ten years now and has not felt the need to try machines by other manufacturers.
Easy to use by one person
According to Koskenniemi the most important criterion when choosing a firewood machine is that it needs to be operable by one person. In addition to a Japa® firewood machine, Tulenrako also uses an Avant miniloader which is used to move logs onto the feeding table. This facilitates the entire procedure from start to finish and makes it operable by one person.
In addition to an Avant miniloader and the feeding table Tulenrako purchased a cleaning drum in Spring 2014. The clean drum separates the bark, sprigs and other debris from the wood so the end product is as clean as possible.
“We should have gotten it much earlier. Now it’s not necessary to vacuum the floor everytime you bring wood inside the house. It’s very convenient” Koskenniemi laughs.
Tulenrako sells firewood to its established client base of regular customers who serve as their best marketing channel.
“A satisfied customer is the best advertisement” says Koskenniemi adding that they haven’t needed to advertise in two years.
For more information and firewood: http://www.tulenrako.com/myynti.html