Next phase of growth of Touchwood

Touchwood has often been hailed as South East Asia’s most prolific agro-forestry investment company. Over the past thirteen years, Touchwood has been sharpening its skills and experience in agro-forestry and forestry investments.

It has earned itself a reputation, not only as a successful commercial enterprise, but also more importantly as a sustainable business that is built on the precepts of people, planet and profit.

Founded in 1999 as a “seedling”, Touchwood had grown to become a pioneer in managed forestry investment in the Asia Pacific region.

The Touchwood story harkens back to Sri Lankan entrepreneur Roscoe Maloney who was inspired to act creatively to what he considered to be a growing global need, the conundrum of increasing a demand for timber despite diminishing forestry cover.

Over the years, Touchwood grew rapidly to become an international group of companies with 43 plantations comprising of 4,500 acres of high-value trees spread throughout two countries. Latterly, Touchwood as a group secured a further 28,000 acres of harvest-ready plantations in Cambodia. Touchwood Investments PLC located in Sri Lanka, has been awarded the contract to establish oversee and maintain the entirety of the plantation acreage.

Whilst 22,000 acres will be replanted with high-value trees, Touchwood Group will stay true to its philosophy of sustainable business by maintaining 5,800 acres as an ecological preservation for flora and fauna. Replanting is also expected to greatly enhance carbon sequestration from the plantation.

“Touchwood is on the brink of greater successes. I am proud to announce that Flooring factory is commissioned. Touchwood is now able to fully focus on agro forestry and plantation management, and intensify our down-streaming strategies for value addition”, noted Maloney. In late May 2012, Touchwood commissioned a wooden flooring factory and is presently undertaking preliminary sales.

“Indeed, we firmly believe that through value-addition we can further optimize on opportunities to do business sustainably. Our flooring product, for example, is 100% biodegradable and therefore essentially a sustainable product,” said Maloney.