Heinrich Gratenau (III) founded his agency for northern solid wood products in 1971 after having been partner of a wood importer in the north German City of Bremen.
The wooden tradition of the family reaches back to the 19th century.
It started by some Swedish connections, which have been the heart of the business idea in the beginning of the 70ies too.
Soon shippers in Norway and Finland have been added.
The whole German speaking market became the sales area for the company.
1986 Heinrich Gratenau jr (IV) took over, who had entered the company 2 years before. His knowledge of the business based on economic studies and some practical trainings in Sweden, Finland and Germany.
Now Finland became more important and after getting independent the Baltic republics were added.
After the wall fell HEGRA stormed into the ‚new’ east German areas. From now on the German speaking area was finally covered completely.
In August 2018 Mr. Ulf Norén joined the company again after having been in duty with HEGRA already between 1995 and 2001. From 2019 on he is new partner together with Mr. Gratenau and from 2021 on he will own 100 % of the company. Mr Gratenau will continue as MD together with him. This is the first and most important step to create a new team to lead HEGRA into the future.
Today the HEGRA team sells northern solid wood products of all kinds to the importing timber wholesalers. They appreciate reliable seriousness in advice, negotiation of contracts and delivery service. So it’s no surprise HEGRA is one of the few agencies left with a staff bigger than one. The scale provides most of all a big variety of products and services. By HEGRA you can get solved nearly every purchasing task for northern solid wood.
The success in the market is obligation and challenge in a market, which has been globalised with the usual wooden delay, which needs more and more a global view.
