Raiffeisen Waren significantly expands wood pellet business
June 19, 2025
» Raiffeisen Waren GmbH (RW) participates as a shareholder in production in Hessisch Lichtenau, Northern Hesse
» The approach “regional, sustainable, and from our own production”, combined with short transport routes, forms the core of the private label “RW top Premium Pellets”
» Customers can rely on a secure supply of high-quality wood pellets at fair conditions
Kassel/Hessisch Lichtenau, June 2024 – “This year, we are really getting started with supplying our customers using ENplus-certified wood pellets produced in-house from the region,” explains Mario Soose, Chairman of the Executive Board of Raiffeisen Waren. “We place particular emphasis not only on the wood itself and its origin, but also on short transport routes. Production uses exclusively residual wood and so-called industrial wood from Hesse and neighboring federal states, which must be removed from forests as part of sustainable forestry practices and cannot be used elsewhere,” Mario Soose continues.
Raiffeisen Waren GmbH (RW) has already been a retailer of high-quality wood pellets for private and commercial customers for more than two decades. Until now, the company had supplied its customers exclusively with purchased goods.
This has changed for some time now. At the end of 2022, RW founded HGS Holzhandel GmbH (HGS), based in Hessisch Lichtenau, together with other shareholders from Northern Hesse.
Shortly after its founding, the company began building its first pellet production line, which was able to go fully into operation in Q2 of this year. Following certification of both the production facility and the product, the first production line is now running at full capacity. Further expansion of production capacities is already underway. In its final expansion stage, up to 80,000 tons of pellets per year are to be produced at the site on Lilienthalstraße in the Hirschhagen industrial area – both bulk pellets for pellet heating systems and bagged goods for smaller pellet stoves, for example.
Sales are handled exclusively by Raiffeisen Waren. “For this purpose, we have specifically expanded our logistics, so that we will soon be able to serve our entire business area with our own fleet,” explains Sascha Viel, the responsible RW product manager.
For customers, one of the key reasons to choose the product “RW top Premium Wood Pellets” manufactured in Hessisch Lichtenau is that the pellets not only meet the ENplus A1 standard, like many competing products, but also place strong emphasis on keeping production and transport routes as short as possible – from raw material selection through production and distribution to the end customer. Initially, production uses exclusively solid wood that meets the so-called industrial wood standard and is additionally FSC and/or PEFC certified. Simply put, this is wood that cannot be used for other purposes, such as furniture production. A significant portion of the electricity required for production will, in the future, come from the company’s own photovoltaic system installed on the roof. “This approach fits our corporate philosophy and our ambition to supply our customers with energy in an increasingly sustainable way,” explains Marco Weide, the responsible division manager at Raiffeisen Waren.
“This year, we are really stepping on the gas and continuously working to further improve both ourselves and the production process in order to deliver a very high-quality product at fair conditions. In addition to efficiency, we place a special focus on product quality – across the entire production chain,” explains Torsten Sörgel, shareholder and operations manager of HGS Holzhandel GmbH.
Heating with wood pellets is becoming increasingly popular in Germany and is particularly attractive wherever electric heat pumps do not make sense from an energy perspective and where no grid-based energy supply, such as district heating, is available. In addition, central pellet heating systems are classified as a sustainable heating option under the current Building Energy Act, among other reasons because burning wood does not release more CO₂ than the corresponding tree absorbed over its lifetime. According to the industry association Deutsches Pelletinstitut GmbH, a steady increase of approximately 56,000 pellet heating systems compared to 2023 is forecast for 2024. It is expected that this number will continue to rise in the coming years. Another advantage, especially now, to consider making the switch: the German development bank KfW supports the installation of modern heating technologies for private individuals in residential buildings with subsidies of up to 70 percent. Pellet heating systems are also eligible. Depending on the conditions, total funding of up to €23,500 is possible when replacing a heating system in a single-family home.
