History

The origins lie in the peat extraction and agriculture of the northeast of the Netherlands, where there was a great demand for wheelwright products.

Around 1935, Hendrik Venema, who had learnt the trade from his father, started to invent and develop a machine with which he could machine shovel shafts, which were sawn out of ash plywood, both tapered and with rotation. This is a tricky task because the shaft was cut out crooked, so it could not be locked in a lathe. Hendrik was granted a patent in several European countries.

He was soon successful with this invention, and in 1937, he bought a building in Valthermond (in the middle of the peatlands). Even in the first factory, it was possible to produce shovel shafts at a considerable scale.

The Venema wood products factory also moved with the market after the peat extraction. Son Jan continued the business with the production of scrap metal and son Daan with the manufacture of oak furniture. Son Henk did not enter the business but always remained active in wood next to his work. Jan later emigrated to New Zealand and Daan focused entirely on the oak tables in Valthermond. Due to increasing demand, Henk and Daan built a small sawmill in the early 80s.

Edwin Venema took over that small sawmill in 1993. Edwin further expanded the small sawmill, until lack of space in 2002 led to a move to Tweede Exloërmond, the current location. An entirely new, modern sawmill was set up here with a capacity of 8,000 m3 of logs per year. Sawing work was done for civil engineering, the furniture and parquet industry, and later also for export to Asia. In 2020, the decision was taken to terminate the sawing activities and to have the oak needed by customers sawn at European sawers with whom a longstanding partnership was already in place.

2020 is also the year to change course again and to focus on producing thermowood (www.thermohoutholland.nl), and the new generation has now also joined the company. Son Henk works on sales and production of thermowood and son Levi does sales and machining.