66 International Forest Industries | JUNE/JULY 2012

HIGH PROFILE

International ForestIndustries: How did you getstarted in the forestrysector?

Anders Ragnarsson: I would haveto say I fell into it. I grew up on afarm in Sweden and in 1983 it wastime for my sister and me to takeover the business from ourparents. She was more of a farmerthan I’ll ever be so I packed up mygear and moved to the US. InSweden, I used to climb trees –big trees. I’d climb trees inpeople’s backyards that no oneelse would touch and cut themdown. Back in ’82 in Boston therewas a hurricane – Hurricane Bob –that really made a mess out ofparts of Massachusetts. The treeswere all over the place so Ithought ‘that place is going to

need high-risk tree-felling’, so Igrabbed my climbing gear and mychain saw and I never went backhome.

IFI: That first businessventure must have been asuccess.AR: It was. It was very successful,initially, but I knew sooner or laterI was going to kill myself. If youclimb up 100 feet into a treehanging on to frozen bark withyour fingernails, sooner or lateryou’re going to slip and that willbe the end of you - and I pushedit. I pushed as hard and as far as Icould have pushed – if there wasanything I was ever good at, thatwas it.

IFI: So what changed?AR: There was generally a whole

bunch of wood waste that I had toget rid of and at the time therewere few disposal options, legalor otherwise. I needed to come upwith a solution to this problemsurrounding all the debris I wascreating and so I went on a tour tofind a wood grinder.

Back then, in the ‘80s, portablewood grinding technology wasscarce – there weren’t a lot ofchoices – and I picked a bad one. Itook all my blueberry money, allthe money I’d made felling, andspent it on the wood grinder andthe damn thing didn’t work. Thenthe recession hit, no one wantedto buy the service and the bankwanted its money. It wasn’t a goodcombination. In the end I satisfiedthe people I owed money to but Iwas left with nothing.

I was in my mid-30s by thenand had to start all over, but thewood still needed to be groundup, so I took pen to paper anddesigned what I thought a goodgrinder should look like andconvinced a company inMassachusetts to build it for me. Itold them that if they built it,when it worked I would sell it andthen I would pay them for it. Theytold me I was kidding myself andshowed me the door but a weeklater, one of the brothers – fourbrothers owned and ran this bigfabrication company – called meand asked me to come back andtalk to them again. He said, ‘Wehave a rule that each one of us

can do something the otherscompletely disagree with, once.I’ve built everything you canimagine but I’ve never built awood grinder. Tell me more aboutit and I’ll build it for you’. Theywere just a fabrication companyso I had to do the engineering. I’mnot an engineer but I took a littlebit of drafting in school, I workedas a mechanic with SwedishTractor for a while, and I grew upon a farm where you had to buildmost things because there wasn’tany money to buy new technology,so it began – we built it, it worked,and we sold it.

My first idea was that I wasgoing to build the machine and Iwas going to own and operate it,but then I thought, ‘you knowwhat, everybody else has the

Anders Ragnarsson is a

Swedish-born forester who

won’t settle for second best. He

spoke with editor Chris Cannfollowing World Bioenergy 2012

about climbing giant trees in the

snow, the problems with the

green energy movement and

riding his Harley Davidson

through the Italian Alps

Tall timber

If you climb up 100

feet into a tree

hanging onto to

frozen bark with your

fingernails, sooner or

later you’re going to

slip and that will be

the end of you

same dilemma’, so why wouldn’t Ikeep making them? So I did, andone after another we found acustomer and it grew into abusiness – Continental BiomassIndustries.

IFI: So the company hasalways been ContinentalBiomass Industries?AR: Yes, always CBI. I wanted along name that could beshortened. The outline of the logois the side-profile of the rotor fromthat first machine. I hired a localartist and I told him we had tocome up with a good name for themachine and we thought, ‘what’sthe toughest animal in the woods?... The grizzly bear’, so it wascalled the Grizzly Mill. So we tookthe head of the bear and stuck itin the middle of the logo.

IFI: Do you still own thecompany or have otherinvestors and stakeholderscome in as it evolved?AR: No, it’s all mine.

IFI: Where was your firstinternational deal?AR: We naturally went across theborder into Canada. The Canadiansawmills were converting fromTeepee burners – they burned alltheir sawmill waste in the woodyard in a tent looking structure.These were outlawed in the 1990sbecause of all the smoke goinginto the valleys so we soldhundreds of these Grizzly Millsinto Canada as the standards for

processing waste were lifted. Thatwas a major market for us eventhough it was not the firstintention for the machine. The firstintention was to grind stumps andwood debris that were generatedfrom land clearing. It turned outthey were extremely well-suited togrinding sawmill waste.

IFI: Did your Scandinavianroots help your expansioninto Europe?AR: They did. I understood theculture over here and am used tothe materials so taking themachine back to Sweden andconvincing the industry of itsmerits wasn’t too difficult. It wasalso important for me to go backafter disappearing 10-15 yearsearlier and show that I’damounted to something.

IFI: So the businessexpanded further from there?AR: That was around 1995 and theScandinavian market grew thenwe got into Japan with a bigcontract then moved intoAustralia, which was a very goodmarket for us and now SouthAmerica is becoming a veryimportant market, even Africa iscoming along.

IFI: Are you finding morebusiness coming out ofAfrica as various countriesbegin to mechanise theirindustries?AR: Africa is a hotbed, absolutelyfull of problems, but one thing

that can be done there is thegrowing of trees – once you getthem into the ground they tend to

look after themselves. One thingthat has been happening therelately is rubber tree processing tomake fuel which is shipped toEurope. We’ve started to see moreof that and have become involvedwith it a little bit through projectsin Liberia and Ghana. Ourequipment is a good fit over there– it’s simple, it’s effective, and it’srobust.

So, we’ve established someoutlets across the world – CBIEurope, CBI do Brazil, CBIAustralia, CBI Chile – most ofwhich have been established inthe last few years.

IFI: You said that you fellinto this industry but nowthat you’ve establishedyourself would you say it’sbecome a passion,particularly biomass?AR: If you’re not passionate aboutwhat you’re doing, you’ll nevermake it – success doesn’t happenby itself. I’ve always beencompetitive by nature. If I’m goingto make a machine it has to be thebest, otherwise I’ll quit. I love tohear my customers braggingabout their machines, to hearthem say: ‘I’ve got a CBI and itgrinds and chips more thananything else’. If they can’t saythat about my machine then Ibetter damn well go home andbuild something better. It wouldkill me if they said: ‘Yeah, I’ve gota CBI but I’m thinking abouttrading it in for an X, Y or Z’.

Anders chats about theSouthern Hemisphere

market at AusTimber 2012

It was important for

me to go back after

disappearing 10-15

years earlier and show

that I’d amounted

to something

JUNE/JULY 2012 | International Forest Industries 67

HIGH PROFILE

68 International Forest Industries | JUNE/JULY 2012

That’s why I go to these tradeshows and run my own machines.I have plenty of qualified peoplewho can do that, but I love to seethe look on people’s faces when Iturn a CBI machine on and it justdevours a log.

IFI: What was the feeling likeat AusTimber 2012 and howimportant is the SouthernHemisphere market?AR: AusTimber was a perfectlytimed show for us. We decided tobuild an in-wood debarking andchipping system about two-and-a-half years ago that would besecond-to-none. We hadcustomers who were using ourmachines to grind that would askus why we weren’t makingdebarking and chipping systems,so we said: ‘alright, we’ll do it’. Sowe went around the worldinterviewing people that werechipping in the field. We had a

blank piece of paper and askedpeople what they’d like if theycould have anything – if you listen,I mean really listen, people willtell you. So, based on that, wespent a year-and-a-half designingand another year building andwhen we were done we’d madethe first 604 Magnum FlailDebarker, which connects andtalks to a 754 Magnum DiscChipper.

They are transported separatelybut link up in the forest. Thechipper moves the flail and oneoperator controls both machinesremotely, while a custom builtTigercat loader sits on top of theunit. We’ve significantly raised thebar when it comes to theproductivity and quality of chipsand with productivity it’s not justabout how fast you can produce aton of material but also how longcan you run without havingmechanical issues. It’s also about

how long it takes to move thesystem from one landing to thenext, and with the MagnumChipper dragging the Debarker,the system can be driven from onelanding to the next and justbacked in.

We sold that first unit to acompany in Western Australia,Softwood Logging. We’d justfinished the second system in timefor AusTimber and that’s the onethat we took to the show. The bestmarkets for this product areeucalyptus and plantation forests,of which Australia has plenty, sothis show came at just the righttime. Our competitors were allthere so we were able to say:‘there you go fellas, now you can

Anders prefers to operate his machines himself at trade shows to gaugethe client reaction

The world has to get

smarter and it is

getting smarter, but

subsidies can skew

the whole picture –

sometimes they help

but sometimes it’s

more harmful than

helpful

Customers are looking at this system like they

might have looked at their wife when they saw

her for the first time – they’re thinking that this

is the last debarking and chipping system they’ll

ever get involved with – it’s good but I

reckon we can still make it better

HIGH PROFILE

compare’. The market has so farreceived this product remarkablywell and is perhaps giving us morecredit than is warranted.Customers are looking at thissystem like they might havelooked at their wife when theysaw her for the first time – they’rethinking that this is the lastdebarking and chipping systemthey’ll ever get involved with – it’sgood but I reckon we can stillmake it better.

IFI: Do you take a differentapproach to a show likeWorld Bioenergy 2012 tosomething like AusTimber?AR: Yes and no. The WorldBioenergy Show has a differentfocus than the AusTimber, whichconcentrates on the harvestingand in-woods chipping contractor.It’s a little bit of a differentclientele and is more aboutspecially engineered machines tofit a very competitive marketplacein Europe where there’s lot ofdifferent road regulations andmany customers trying to producea specific product in a specificway. Especially now there’s a glutof fuel in Scandinavia and so theprices are going down so we’retrying to figure out how we canhelp these entrepreneurs andcompanies continue to makemoney – that is the challenge –and if you succeed you’ll makesome very good friends.

IFI: So what were thoseentrepreneurs asking forwhen you spoke to them atWorld Bioenergy? AR: They want smaller machinesthat are still productive – justbecause they’re small, doesn’tmean they aren’t productive. Eventhough our machine has thelowest fuel costs per tonne ofwood fuel produced, you have to

look at the complete system thatthese guys are trying to operateand see how you can furtherimprove this. You also have to seehow you can make these machinesmore portable and how you canmeet the evermore increasingweight restrictions of differentcountries. Just like in the US,where almost every state has itsown regulations on weight andtransport and emissions, the samecan be said for Europe with itsmany member states – what goesin Finland doesn’t go in Norwayand what goes in Norway doesn’tgo onto The Continent. So we’rereally trying to understand whatthe contractor needs, what they’retrying to achieve and who are hiscustomers and what are theirneeds – what is it that hiscustomer demands of him andwhat machine can we make forhim that will deliver that productin the most cost-effective way togive him that edge to beat hiscompetition.

IFI: Does it mean theversatility to adapt betweenregulatory environments isimportant for you in beingsuccessful?AR: Yes, that’s crucial. We have toadapt between the regulations ofthese various countries and thatprocess has to be economic.Some manufacturers setthemselves up to mass produceone model and that’s a businessmodel that can work very well. Weset ourselves up a little differently.We have a very competentengineering department that isable to mix and matchcomponents, parts and pieces tocustom-build in low volumes andstill make money. That’s our niche.It would be nice someday if wecan make a long run of the samemachine but, today, those who are

spending money on new machinesneed something different andspecialised for their business –that’s what we do.

IFI: Have you seen anychange in appetite for greenenergy given the shift ineconomic circumstancesglobally and the removal orreduction of some greensubsidies?AR: There are so many people inthe biomass business for manydifferent reasons it’s tough toknow where to start. Whether thegreen energy business issubsidised or not, it’s aboutsustainability – where are wegoing to get fibre from and howare we best going to use thatfibre? By building condensingpower plants and burning massivevolumes of wood at 30% efficiencythat has been transported halfwayacross the world? That’s a crimeagainst future generations. Justbecause we have tax incentives todo such things doesn’t mean weshould do them. We spend toomuch money on processing andtransportations and inefficienciesin combustion. The world has toget smarter and it is gettingsmarter, but subsidies can skewthe whole picture. Sometimesthey help but sometimes it’s moreharmful than helpful.

Transportation is a big issue.We need to plan intelligently andharvest intelligently in an efficient,mechanical way that doesn’twaste time, money and resources.This then needs to be processedinto a fuel that can also be usedefficiently. There are lots ofsincere companies working on thisbut it has to be recognised thatjust because it is green and has asubsidy attached, it doesn’t make

it efficient or smart. I talk as manypeople out of the biomassbusinesses as I talk into it. Beingsustainable and being green is theway of the future but only if thatcan be done with the maximumlevel of efficiency and with properuses of the resources available. Ithink this is what we and othermanufacturers and industrystakeholders are working toward.

IFI: Do you get much of achance to do much travelthat doesn’t involve biomassproduction?AR: I enjoy travel for a lot ofreasons. My favourite past-time isto get a big V-Twin between mylegs and go riding in the North ofItaly. That’s something that I andfew other guys who like bigmotorcycles have started doing inthe last four years. We descend onNorthern Italy and the Alpineregion and go riding – eat goodfood, stay in little bed-and-breakfasts and have a bit of fun.We do that for a couple of weeksand cover several thousandkilometres, but it doesn’t matterhow far you go. It’s about stoppingin little villages along the way forsome wine, cheese, the view andjust enjoying the company. Thenoff you go again only to put yourfeet up and at the end of the dayand enjoy a Jack and Coke. Thisyear there will be about five of usand I just bought a new Harleythat I’m equipping for the trip thatis planned for the end of Augustwhere, once again, I’ll being ridingthrough the beautiful Italiancountryside. IFI

Enjoying the scenery at the foot of the Italian Alps

My favourite past-time is to get a

big V-Twin between my legs and

go riding in the North of Italy

JUNE/JULY 2012 | International Forest Industries 69

HIGH PROFILE